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PROTESTANT 


FOREIGN MISSIONS; 


Cljcir ^^rrscnt State. 


A UNIVEESAL SURVEY. 


/ 


BY 


THEODOrI CHRISTLIEB, D.D., Ph.D., 

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND UNIVERSITY PREACHER, BONN, PRUSSIA. 


^Translation from t\)z JFourtl) German Etiliion, 


BY 


'iPW 


DAVID AL&^, REED. . 

, ■ 

'-'r v/ 




ONLY AUTHORIZED AMERICAN EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 

CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, 


beacon street. 



% 


Copyright, 1880 , 

By Congregational Pctblishing Society. 


The Library 
OF Congress 


WASHINGTON 


STEREOTYPED BY 

C. J. PETERS & SON, 

73 FEDERAL ST., BOSTON. 



* 

















AUTHOR’S NOTE. 


An abstract of the following pages was read before 
the Evangelical Alliance in Basel, on the 5th of Sep¬ 
tember, 1879. The whole appeared first in a volume 
of Reports upon the meetings of the Evangelical Alli¬ 
ance in September, 1879, then in the “ Allegemeine 
Missions-Zeitschrift ” (Giitersloh, Bertlsmann), No¬ 
vember and December numbers, 1879. 

Numerous friends of missions in other lands having 
desired a separate edition, the thii*d revised and en¬ 
larged German edition was published, and was taken 
up in a few months. Now this larger fourth edition, 
with the latest statistics, is issued. The numerous 
letters sent to me, even from China and Formosa, con¬ 
taining hearty thanks for the laborious and careful 
work, and new information as to the present condition 
of affah’s, have been used in this edition. An English 
edition, issued a short time ago (by J. Nisbet & Co.), 
was sold in a few weeks. Also a French edition, a 
Dutch, and an American edition by the Congregational 



IV 


author’s note. 


n 

Publishing Societ}" (Boston), are ready for the press 
A Swedish edition has been coming out since th 
middle of January in the numbers of the “Missions 
Tidning,”* Stockholm. A number of royal consistorie 
have recommended the book in the warmest manner t 
their ministers. 

Thus the Lord has already, in the short time since th 
little book’s appearance, laid a rich blessing uj^on it 
May he continue to use it for the removal of man; 
prejudices and the furtherance of his kingdom! 

THE AUTHOR 

Bonn, June, 1880. 





NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


Professor Christlieb requested the Congregational 
Publishing Society to issue a translation of this book 
made under his own eye^ and on which he should receive 
the usual copyright. His request was acceded to, and 
public announcement made of the fact. While the 
book was passing through, the press, about three-fourths 
in type, with additions forwarded by the author to 
incorporate which there had been a slight delay, a 
Scotch-English translation of the third edition was put 
upon the American market, to the prejudice of Profes¬ 
sor Christlieb. Few will think it strange that he com¬ 
plains of this as an injustice, and fewer still among 
American Christians will wish he should be deprived 
of his honestly-earned copyright. 

This volume contains the most recent statistics, and 
the amendments and additions of the fourth German 
edition, which appeared in July. A few of the new 
paragraphs which ov'Crran the foot-notes are printed as 



VI 


NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


Addenda. A full and copious index has been added 
indispensable to such a book. 

We are permitted and authorized to say, that th€ 
proof-sheets of this edition have passed under the eye 
of one of the secretaries of the American Board. 

CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY. 
Boston, September, 1880. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The Vast Extent and Manifold Nature of Modern Protes¬ 
tant Missions. — The Great Difficulty experienced by 
those who would draw up the Statistics or the Theory of 
Missions. — Divisions of the Subject.1-5 


I. 


PAST AND PRESENT. 

I. The Outward Extent of Protestant Missions.—A 
Proof that the Age of Universal Missions has begun. 

— Retrospect of the Modest Results of Missions in 
the Eighteenth Centurj^. — Survey of the Rapid 
Extension of Mission Territory; Present (Ecumeni¬ 
cal Character and Growing Success of Missions in 
our Century. — Progress during the last Thirty 

Years.'. . . 5-11 

II. Growth of the Missionary Spirit at Home.—Disai)- 
pearance of Former Prejudices in England, Scot¬ 
land, America, and Germany. — Increase in the 
Number of Missionary Societies; their Distribution 
over the Various Christian Countries; their Branch 
Societies in Heathen Lands. — The Present com¬ 
pared with the Former Number of Missionaries and 
Assistant Laborers. — The Present Total of Protes¬ 
tant Heathen Christians, and their Distribution 
over the Principal Missionary Territories. — Growth 
of some of the Larger Missionary Societies, the 
Number of their Agents, and their Annual Reve¬ 
nue. — Increase in the Total Amount contributed 
towards Protestant Mission Schools. — Evangelical 
Mission-Schools.11-19 


vii 




Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

III. Circulation of the Holy Scriptures Eighty Years Ago 

and Now; New Translations in the Present Centu¬ 
ry into at least Two Hundred and Twenty-six Lan¬ 
guages. — Diversity of Missionary Labor and its 
Results in Particular Fields during the last Thirty 
Years.—The growing Moral Influence of the Gos¬ 
pel, shown in the Regeneration of Heathen Races. 

— Proof that the most Degraded Nations can be 
Christianized.19-24 

IV. The Obverse Side of the Picture, in spite of all the 

Promising Commencements made, more especially 
among somewhat cultivated Heathen Peoples.— 
Increasing Difficulties of JVIissionary Work. — 
Growth of Islam. — Jealousy of Rome.— Decrease 
in the Zeal of the Church at Home. — Deficits be¬ 
coming Chronic.24-30 

II. 

THE MISSIONARY AGENCIES OF THE MOTHER CHURCH.- 

THE CHURCH AT HOME, AND ITS MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 

I. Divisions of Protestantism an Advantage. — Eng¬ 
land stands before all other Lands in Mission¬ 
ary Effort. — The National Churches comparatively 
surpassed by the Free Churches, particularly in 
Scotland. — The Inward Reason of this. — Mission¬ 
ary Activity in the United States. — General Mis¬ 
sionary Interest in the Principal Churches there. — 
Missionary Effort in Holland; the Number of its 
Missionary Societies, compared with France and 
Norway.. 

II. Germany and Switzerland. — The Missionary Efforts 
of the German and Norwegian Lutheran Churches, 
compared with those of the Reformed and United 
Churches. — All the German Societies together do 
not contribute so much as One of the Three Great 
English Societies. — The Cause of this. — “ A Three¬ 
fold Conversion” necessary for a German.— Un- • 
equal Division of Missionary Interest in Germany. 

— Stubborn Prejudices among the Educated. — In¬ 
fluence of the “ Liberal ” Press, and of the Reformed 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


PAGE 

Jews. — Cheering Signs of the Growing Recognition 
of Missionary Work. — A General Survey gives 
Cause for Shame. — Difference in the Position 
taken by the Clergy.40-49 

III. Necessity of promoting an Interest in Missions by 

the Church, and not by the Societies only. — Is 
there really a Lack of Money ? . . . . 49-52 

IV. Practical Hints : Missionary Interest in the Congre¬ 

gation, the University, the Pulpit, and the Bible- 
Class. — A Greater Concentration of Interest, — 

The Duty of the Richer Congregations and Indi¬ 
vidual Rich Members. — Piety alone not sufficient 

to make a Missionary.52-56 

V. The Missionary Societies and their Forms of Activity. 

— New Societies founded since 1865. — Internal 
Organization. — Differences in the training for Mis¬ 
sionary Service. — The Superintendence of Mis¬ 
sionaries.— The Board of Direction, and the Sala¬ 
ries of Missionaries. — Economy practised among 
the German Societies. — No Lack of Agents, but a 
Careful Selection Necessary .... 56-62 

VI. Missionary Methods. — Conversion of Individuals, 
and the Christianizing of Whole Countries.—New 
Proposals of other Methods. — A Return to Apos¬ 
tolic Practices not practicable. — Proposal for Im¬ 
provement from the Liberal Camp. — New Mis¬ 
sionary Plans in the Light of Old Missionary 
History. — The Imperial Biblical Law for the 
Preaching of the Cross. — The Need of Capable and 
Educated Missionaries for the Civilized Nations of 
Heathendom. — The Necessity for the Latter con¬ 
tinuing their Studies ...... 62-72 

VII. Why are there neither Medical Missionary Societies 
nor Medical Missionaries in Germany ? — Origin 
and Work of the Former in Scotland, England, and 
America. — T^heir Growing Importance for Mission¬ 
ary Work. — Female Missionary Societies in Eng¬ 
land and Scotland for the Education of Heathen 
Women, and the Berlin Ladies’ Association. — The 
Result: the Present Position of Missionary Socie- 


X 


CONTENTS. 


III. 


WORK AMONG THE HEATHEN. — ARRANGEMENT OF 

MATERIALS. 


PAGB 

I. Among Uncivilized Peoples. — Beginnings in Aus¬ 
tralia. — Present State of English Missions in New 
Zealand; of the London and Dutch Mission in 
New Guinea; of the last-named Society in Cele¬ 
bes (Minahassa) and Java; of the Rhenish Mission 

in Borneo and Sumatra.80-84 

II. Success of Protestant Missions in the South Seas. — 
Polynesia now almost wholly Christianized.—La¬ 
bors of the London Society, 'SYesleyans, and 
American Board there. — The Sandwich Islands a 
Protestant Land. —Missions of the Hawaiian Asso¬ 
ciation, and of the London Society in Micronesia. — 
Harvest Work of Several English INtissionary Socie¬ 
ties in Melanesia. — Success of the Wesleyans in 
Fiji. — Christianizing of the Loyalty Islands. — 
Difficulties on the New Hebrides. — The New Plan 
adopted by the English Episcopal Mission. — Total 
Number of those converted.84-89 

III. Protestant Mission Work among the Uncivilized Peo¬ 

ples of America. — The Danes and Moravians in 
Greenland and Labrador. —Wesleyan and Anglican 
Missions in Canada and the Hudson’s Bay Terri¬ 
tory.— The Work of the Church Missionary Socie¬ 
ty.— Columbia: Metlakahtla a CMlized Christian 
Town in the Wilderness. — Alaska. — American 
Missions among the Remnant Indian Tribes of the 
United States. — A New Turn for the Better.— 
Progress of Civilization and the Gospel among 
them. — Evangelization of the Negroes in the 
United States.89-96 

IV. The Present State of Protestant Missions in the West 

Indies and Central America. — The Moravians on 
the Mosquito Coast. — The Propagation Society in 
British Guiana. — Growth and Decrease of the Mo- - 
ravian Mission in Surinam; in the Danish and 
English West Indies. — Training of the Congrega¬ 
tions to Self-Support. — The English Missions there. 


CONTENTS. 


XI 



I 



PAGE 


— Strength of the Wesleyan and Anglican Missions. 

— Jamaica Substantially a Protestant Country. — 

■ English Missions on the Southern Extremity of 

South America. — Results.96-101 

V. State of Missions in Africa. — Pressing forward from 
Without to the Interior.—Three Protestant Mis¬ 
sionary Territories. — West Africa. — Several Small 
Commencements. — Larger Territories. — English 
Missions in Sierra Leone. — American Missions in 
Liberia. — Wesleyan, Basel, and North-German 
Missions on the Gold and Slave Coasts. — English 
Missions in Yornbaland, and on the Niger . 101-107 

VI. South Africa. — A Finnish Mission in Ovampoland. — 

A Rhenish Mission in Hereroland, Namaqnaland, 
and Cape Colony. — The Cape the Basis of Mission¬ 
ary Operations. — The London Missions among the 
Bechuanas. — The Berlin, Paris, Ilerniannsbnrg, 
and Swedish Societies, at the Cape, among the 
Kafirs in Orange State, in Basutoland, the Trans¬ 
vaal, Natal, and Zululand. — The INIoravians and 
Wesleyans among the Kafirs, &c. — The Lovedale 
Institute of the Free Church of Scotland. — The 
United Presbyterian, American, and Norwegian 
Missions. — Total Number of Converts . . 107-114 

VII. East and East-Central Africa. — Madagascar the 
Crown of the London Mission. — Other Missions 
there. — Mauritius. — English Missions on the Coast 
of Zanzibar.—Advance to the Interior Lakes of 
East Africa. — The Scotch on Nyassa; the London 
Society on Tanganyika; the Church Missionary 
Society at Victoria Nyanza. — Beginnings; Abys- 


114-121 


sinia 


VIII. Several Results of Experience taken from Labor 
among Uncivilized Peoples. — The Duty of the Mis¬ 
sionary. — Danger of Pride of Education. — Method 
of Instruction. — Necessity of a Lengthened Course 
of Instruction previous to Baptism. — Study of the 
lianguage, and Literary Labor. — Instruction in 
Schools, and Employment of Native Talent. — Care 
to be taken in insisting upon Outward Culture.— 
Mission Industries. — Christianization not Dena^ 




Xll 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

tionalizatiou. — Europeanizing a Mistake 1 — Thor¬ 
oughly Capable Men necessary. — Relief to the 
Funds at Home by more Attention being paid to 
the Training-up of Native Congregations to Self- 
Support, Self-Government, and Self-Extension, 121-13(3 

THE WORK AMONG CIVILIZED PEOPLES. 

I. Greater Difficulty of Mission-Work. — Protestant Mis¬ 
sions in the Lands of Islam. —American Missions in 
the Turkish Empire. — Legal Hinderances to full 
Religious Freedom among the Mohammedans.— 
Evangelization of the Oriental Churches. — Mis¬ 
sions of the United Presbyterian Church of Amer¬ 
ica in Egypt. — Mission of the American Board in 
the West-Central and East-Turkish Provinces ; Es¬ 
tablishment of the Protestant Oriental Church 
among the Armenians. — Scottish Free Church and 
American Schools and Missions in Syria. — Mission 
Work of the Church Missionary Society in Pales¬ 
tine . 136-145 

II. American Missions among the Nestorians. — Com¬ 
mencements in Persia, among the Moslems in the 
Punjaub, and the Afghans. — Translations of the Bi¬ 
ble; Circulation of the Arabic Bible. — The Grow¬ 
ing Repute of Protestant Christianity. — Moral In¬ 
fluence of Protestant Churches. — Importance of 
Medical Missions in the East. — Hopeful Pros¬ 
pects . 145-151 

III. State of Protestant Missions in India. — Their Present 

Extent. — Increasing Success ; Its Distribution 
among the Several Societies. — Sudden Devel- 
-opment of Particular Provinces. — Unexampled 
Growth within the last Two Years of English and 
American Missions in Southern India.— Total In¬ 
crease . 151-153 

IV. The Several Lands of India according to their Ad¬ 

vancement.— English, American, German, and 
Scottish Missions in Southern India. — State of Mis¬ 
sions in Ceylon. — The American Baptist Missionary 
Society, and the Propagation Society, in Burmah 



CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

(Karens). — Bengal and the North-West Provinces; 
the Gossner Mission among the Kohls ; Eng¬ 
lish and Norwegio-Danish Santal Missions. — The 
Church Missionary Society in the Punjaub and 
Sindh, the American Presbyterians, &c. — The 
West Coast: Scottish Missions in Eajpootana ; 
Work in Bombay and the Central Provinces, by 
English, Scotch, American, and the Basel Mission¬ 
ary Societies.153-166 

V. Character of those who are converted as regards 
Social Position, Religion, Language, and Culture ; 
Distinction between the Aborigines and the Aryan 
Hindoos. — Slow Undermining of Hindooism. — 

The Bond which holds it together. — Caste. — Re¬ 
moval of this Social Fetter by Means of Missions 
and the Introduction of Christian Morality. — Re¬ 
cent Opinions. — Success commencing . . 166-173 

VI. The Schools of India. — Irreligious Government 
Schools. — Impossibility of Neutrality. — Want of 
Religious Decision in the Eyes of the People.— 
More Christian Elementary Schools, and not Acad¬ 
emies.— Necessity for continuing Mission Schools. 

— Their Great Success, and their Limits . 173-178 

VII. More Evangelization. — Zenana-Missions. — Mission¬ 
ary Press and Advancing Unbelief. — Mission In¬ 
dustries.— Inward Organization of a Community; 
Necessity of considering National Peculiarities be¬ 
fore adopting Denominational Forms. — Growing 
Moral Influence of Missions. — Decay of Brahmin- 
ism. — Presentiment of its Fall. — Confession of a 
Brahmin. — Mission Commencements in Malacca, 

Siam, and Laos.178-189 

V'lII. Position of Protestant Missions in China.—Their Re¬ 
cent Origin. — Rapid Increase of Workers. — Their 
Unequal Division into English, American, and Ger¬ 
man. — Present Results. — Survey of Success hither¬ 
to gained in the Various Provinces. — Germans, 
English, and Americans in Kwang-tung and Fuh- 
kien. — Presbyterian Missions in Formosa. — Eng¬ 
lish and American Missions in the Remaining East¬ 
ern Provinces.— The Gospel in Peking.— Missionary 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

beginnings in the Interior Provinces and in Man¬ 
churia. — Present Freedom to travel in China. — 
Advance of the Gospel by Means of the China In¬ 
land Mission to the West, and of the Irish Pres¬ 
byterians to the North. — Greater Respect enter¬ 
tained by the People for Protestant Mission¬ 
aries. — Literary Efforts. — Open-hearted Catho¬ 
licity of the Various Protestant Missions. — The 
Native Chinese Christians. — Difference in the 
'Fields of Labor. — The Last Famine.—Effects of 
Christian Charity. — The Opium Curse. — Protest of 
the Evangelical Alliance. — Brighter Prospects, 189-210 
IX. State of Protestant Missions in Japan.—Its Com¬ 
mencement by American Missionaries. — Forma¬ 
tion of Congregations since 1872. — Missions of the 
^ Presbyterian Union, the American Board, and the 
Other English and American Societies. — Present 
Fruits. — The Land only partially open. — Advan¬ 
cing Scepticism. — The Sun rising . . . 210-219 

IV. 

ONE OR TWO HINTS AND WISHES WITH REGARD TO THE 
DUTIES AND AIMS OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. 

I. A Word for the Friends of Missions at Home. — Well- 
meant Suggestions, and Dear Experiments of Im¬ 
patience. — The Formation of a Missionary Science. 

Collection of Materials for a Theory of Missionary 
Jklethods. — Necessity for Theological Students ex¬ 
tending their Views.219-222 

II. With regard to the Mutual Relation of the Different 
Societies. They should seek to learn more from 
Each Other. — Examples. — Little Notice taken of 
the Labors of Other Societies, and of the General 
Progress of Missions. — The Necessity of extending 
one’s views beyond that of a Particular Church, to 
the Progress of the Kingdom of God. — Let General 
Missionary Conferences be continued. — Wishes for 
Missionary Periodicals and Magazines.—A More 
Uniform Treatment of Missionary Statistics.— A 


CONTENTS. 


XV 



T*AGB 


■I Sharper Distinction should be drawn between For- 
1^ ' eign Missions, and the Work of Evangelization in 
Christian Lands, in the Reports of the Methodists 

and Baptists. 222-228 

III. Uniformity of Practice in General Questions should 
be aimed at. — Division of Labor should be made 
in a Brotherly Spirit. — Many Mistakes made at the 
Commencement of a Mission; also with Reference 
to Fields already occupied. — Denominational Inter¬ 
ests should disappear in Presence of the Common 
Duty. — Recognition of Our Own Powers, and the 
Limitations of them, in Presence of the National 
Peculiarities of Heathen Peoples. — Union of All 
in One Imperial Army. — Quality necessary more 
than Quantity in the Selection of Missionaries. 

— In German Missions, Self-support should be more 
insisted upon. —The Former Means and Duty of a - 
Universal Mission. — A Christianity which over¬ 
comes the World its Own Best Apology.^—The Full 
Harvest approaches. 228-238 


V. 


ADDE^^)A, 


W 


r Medical Mssionaries. —Woman’s Boards. — Papuan 
Missions. — New Guinea. — Samoan Islands. — 
African Missions. — Interference of Jesuits. — The 
Berlin Society. — The English Primitive Method¬ 
ists.—Madagascar : Quaker Missions. — The Blan- 
tyre Mission. — American Board’s New Missions 
in Africa.—.Syrian Missions. — India : Tinnevelly. 
— Siam. — China : Fuh-Kien. — Female Mission¬ 


aries.— Japan. 238-249 





1 - ■■■ 



. ' f . 


• -‘•H. 


J;- 




fe'i&.'r' 


■r J 



PKOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS. 


THEIR PRESENT STATE. 

The evangelical foreign missions of this cen¬ 
tury, among civilized and uncivilized nations, are 
aot easy of comprehension, either as to the out-^ 
irard'facts or as to the inward principles by which 
ithey are regulated. It is difficult to measure the 
[progress they are making, and the results they are 
achieving upon the belief and life of the heathen 
abroad, and by reflex influence upon the Church 
at home. Scarcely any one man has a clear con¬ 
ception of the internal operations of the numerous 
societies in the Old and New Worlds, in Africa, 
Australia, and the South Seas. Many know much 
about this or that field, some are familiar with 
several fields, but no one comprehends them all: 
the materials of knowledge are scattered through 
hundreds of periodicals, and the statistics change 
with almost every mail. 

The great general missionary conferences, as 

that of 1860 in Liverpool, 1878 in Mildmay, 

1 





2 


PIIOTESTANT EOPwEIGN MISSIONS : 


London, and those for special, most importa^ 
missions, —that of Allahabad for India in 1872, 
Shanghai for China in 1877, — give us a glanc 
over the greatest fields of labor, and show what hi 
been accomplished in them. But back of thop 
great fields must naturally be those of less im^DOj 
tance, back of the achievements of the great socii; 
ties are the harvests of the many smaller onef 
so that conclusions may be reached in regard < 
certain special fields, but not of the whole : —n< 
to mention the numerous private missions, coa 
nected with no society, of whose work one on! 
learns by accident. Still greater to-day are tl 
difBculties of the theorist on mission-work tha 
those of the historian or statistician, if he seeks b 
comparison of the leading principles and method 
according to which particular societies are mai 
aged, to obtain a comprehensive view of all, e 
that from this comparison of the workings an 
fruits lie may deduce fixed principles, as results € 
experience, and indices to guide in future worJi 
For here the printed material is almost entirejfi 
wanting. Most of the societies restrict then 
selves, even up to this time, to oral or written 
instructions to their missionaries for their specnr 
fields of labor. i 

May the reader kindly keep these enormo® 
difficulties in mind, and not expect in the figur^ 
(aside from the official, which I have taken greii 
pains to collect) more than what is approximate^! 


I, 




THEIR PRESENT STATE. 3 

i>rrect and precise ; in the hints upon the present 
lethods of work, more than outlines, imperfect, 
icomplete glances into these great burning ques- 
ons, from one who has never worked personally 
i the foreign mission-field, — who has only, as it 
.'ere, “in balloon captive,” ascended above the 
eights of church-towers and had a partial look 
b the world, but who would like now to invite 
le reader to a journey around the world swifter 
lan upon the wings of a bird. 

Our theme, Protestant Foreign Missions, 
'heir Present State, includes, (1) the mis- 
|Lonary activity at home, the lever and agencies 
khich out of the lap of the mother-Church have 
l^t to work the particular societies for the accom- 
llishment of this giant task; and (2) the labors 
f the missionaries abroad, in heathen lands, both 
1 regard to their different branches and methods 
f work, and their results. I will therefore, in 
rder to present at least an outline of this great 
rork, — after a quick glance at the past and pres- 
nt of missionary activity, the missionary agencies^ 
f the mother-churches, their modes of operation, 
nd powers, seen in their greatest progress, — con- 
met the reader out into the heathen world, for a 
lasty look at the scenes of Protestant mission 
7 ork, and a review, in large groups, of the results 
cached here and there, especially at the close, 
0 show from the experience of past labor, certain 
lints^ and express certain wishes for the task and 





4 


PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


aim of the future. I hope to serve the great can 
by going less into the detail of statistics, and gi 
ing more consideration to particular fields, emph 
sizing practical, technical points, of whose rig] 
management, so far as I can see, a greater develo 
ment before others is necessary, and about whic 
a general understanding is especially desirable. 


THEN AND NOW. 


6 


: I. 

THEN AND NOW. 

Our theme invites us to a brief comparison of 
he past and present. In fact, the present posi- 
ion of evangelical foreign missions calls us to a 
hankful and hope-inspiring review. Already the 
'Utward extension shows us we are living in a 
entury of missionary work such as no previous 
ge of the Christian Church has witnessed. 

I. After the evangelization, chiefly of civilized 
lations around the Mediterranean, by the early 
Aiurch, the Christianization of the rough and 
)arbarous tribes in Europe through the mission- 
tries of the middle ages; after the penetration 
)f Christianity into separate colonies and the east- 
;rn Asiatic kingdoms since the sixteenth century, 
— there breaks upon us, in our days, and grows 
nore and more complete, the age of universal 
nissions. No longer in particular regions, but in 
ill unchristianized parts of the world and among 
til races of men, — among the highest civilized as 
veil as the most degraded, in colonies and inde- 
)endent heathen lands, even in the remotest coasts 
md islands, where hundreds of languages and 
lialects are spoken, the cross of Christ has been 



6 


PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN ISnSSIONS : 


raised, and the lands of the Church, once lo! 
and under the bloody tread of Islam, have bee 
energetically called into new life by the light ( 
the gospel. 

A few mechanical, superficial Dutch missions i 
Ceylon and the Moluccas; the missions of prival 
Americans and the Moravians, existing with gre£ 
difficulty because of the constant confusion of wa: 
among the Indians of North America; the mud 

• • -I ^ • 

promising, but, under the bad influences of tha 
thoroughly rationalistic age, continually cripple 
missions, in some small districts of East India, c 
the Halle-Danish mission; the missionary effort 
of the Norwegio-Swedish mission, put forth wit 
spasmodic zeal among the heathen Laps of Scand: 
navia; the flourishing missions of the Wesleyan 
and Moravians in the West Indies and Surinam 
some faint scattered flames of gospel light in ic€ 
bound Greenland and Labrador, fanned by Norw€ 
gians, Danes, and especially Moravians; small an( 
soon-suppressed missionary beginnings of the Me 
ravians in Cape Colony, — these were in the main 
notwithstanding many heroic never-to-be-forgotte] 
missionary pioneers, the very humble results o 
evangelical foreign missions, up to the end of th 
eighteenth centurv. 

And now? At the beginning of this century 
the island world of the Pacific was shut against th 
gospel; but England and America have attacke( 
those lands so vigorously in all directions, especiall 


THEIR OUTWARD EXTENSION. 


7 


.hrough native workers, that whole groups of is- 
ancls, even the whole Malayan Polynesia, is to-day 
ilniost entirely Christianized, and in Melanesia and 
Micronesia the mission-field is extended every year. 
The gates of British East India have been thrown 
>pen wider and wider during* this century ; at first 
:or English, then for all missionaries. This great 
dngdom, from Cape Comorin to the Punjaub and 
ap to the Himalayas, where the gospel is knocking 
bn the door of Thibet, has been covered with hun¬ 
dreds of mission-stations, closer than the mission- 
net which at the close of the first century sur¬ 
rounded the Roman empire ; the largest and some 
of the smaller islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and now New 
Guinea also, are occupied, partly on the coast and 
partly in the interior. Burmah, and in part Siam, is 
wide open to the gospel; and China, the most pow¬ 
erful and most populous of heathen lands, forced 
continually to open her doors wider, has been trav¬ 
ersed by individual pioneers of the gospel, to Thibet 
and Burmah, and half of her provinces occupied 
from Hong-kong and Canton to Peking; and in 
Manchuria, if by only a thin chain, yet at many 
of the principal points stations have been founded, 
while the population overflowing into Australia 
and America is being labored with by Protestant 
missionaries. Japan also, hungry for reform, by 
granting entrance to the gospel has been (^uickl^/ 
occupied by American and English missionary 






8 


PEOTESTAXT FOREIGX MISSIONS: 


societies, and already, after so little labor, has 
scores of evangelical congregations. Indeed, the 
aboriginal Australians have, in some places, been 
reached. In the lands of Islam, from the Balkans 
to Bagdad, from Egypt to Persia, there have been* 
common, central evangelization stations estab¬ 
lished in the chief places, for Christians and Mo¬ 
hammedans, by means of theological and Christian 
medical missions, conducted especially by Ameri¬ 
cans. Also in the primitive seat of Christianity, 
Palestine, from Bethlehem to Tripoli and to the 
northern boundaries of Lebanon, the land is cov¬ 
ered by a net-work of Protestant schools, with here 
and there an evangelical church. Africa, west, 
south, and east, has been vigorously attacked; in 
the west, from Senegal to Gaboon, yes, lately even 
to the Congo, by Great Britain, Basel, Bremen, 
and America, which have stations all along the 
coast. South Africa at the extremity was evan¬ 
gelized by German, Dutch, English, Scotch, 
French, and Scandinavian societies. Upon both 
sides, as in the centre, Protestant missions, 
although at times checked by war, are contin¬ 
ually pressing to the north: to the left, beyond 
the Walfisch Bay; to the right, into Zululand, up 
to Delagoa Bay; in the centre, to the Bechuana 
and Basuto lands. In the east, the sun of the 
gospel, after a long storm, has burst forth over 
Madagascar in such brightness that it can never 
again disappear. Along the coasts from Zanzibar 


THEIR OUTWARD EXTENSION. 


9 


,ncl the Nile, even to Abyssinia, ont-stations have 
teen established, and such powerful assaults made 
)y the Scotch, English, and recently also by the 
Vmerican mission and civilization, into the very 
leart of the dark continent, even to the great cen- 
ral and east African lakes, that jealousy has goad¬ 
'd on Rome to follow. In America, the immense 
)lains of the Hudson’s Bay Territory, from Canada 
)ver the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, 
lave not only been visited by English Episcopal 
ind Wesleyan missionaries who have had warm con¬ 
gests with Roman Catholics, but have been opened 
hr and wide to the gospel through rapidly-grow- 
ng Indian missions. In the United States, hun- 
ireds of thousands of freedmen have been gath¬ 
ered into evangelical congregations; and, of the 
remnants of the numerous Indian tribes, some 
rt least have been converted through the work 
3 f evangelization by various churches, and have 
awakened new hope for the future. In Central 
America and the AVest Indies, as far as the coun- 
trv is under Protestant home nations, the net of 
evangelical missions has been thrown from island 
to island, even to the mainland in Honduras, upon 
the Mosquito Coast; and in British and Dutch 
Guiana it has taken ever firmer hold. Finally, 
the lands on and before the southern extremity 
of the continent, the Falkland Islands, Terra del 
Fuego, and Patagonia, received the first light, 
through the South American Missionary Society 


10 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


(in London); and recently, its messengers have 
pushed into the heart of the land, and are rapidlj^ 
jmessing on to the banks of the great Amazon, tc 
the Indians of Brazil. Truly, this hasty glance 
already shows that Protestant missions extend the 
world around, and that the efforts of the Christian 
churches of our age for the evangelization of man¬ 
kind are universal. 

Indeed, if, instead of seventy or eighty years, 
we look back only twenty or thirty, in respect 
to the new territory occupied in Turkey and 
East India, in China, Japan, and the South Sea, 
in Africa and America, the field of mission¬ 
ary operation has not only doubled but trebled. 
Also, in our day, new and immense fields have 
been re-opened in the old provinces. I call your 
attention simply to the woman’s work in India. 
“ If any one had said to me, twenty-five years 
ago, ’ writes that veteran of Indian missions, Mr. 
Leupolt, “that not only should we have free 
access to the natives in their houses, but that 
zenanas would be opened in cities like Benares, 
Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Amritsir, and Lahore, and 
that European ladies with their native assistants 
would be admitted to teach the word of God to 
them : I would have replied, ‘ All things are pos¬ 
sible to God; but I do not expect such a glorious 
event in my day. But what has God done? more 
than we expected and prayed for.” i In fact, from 

1 See Church Mission Intelligencer, April, 1879, p. 197. 


MISSIONARY SPIRIT AT HOME. 11 

i<|alcutta to Peshawur, and in the south as far as 
Palamcotta, the messengers of the Indian Female 
Normal School alone, not to mention others, have 
opened already more than twelve hundred ze¬ 
nanas. 

• 

II. With the infinite extension of the work 
abroad, there is the strengthening of the machine¬ 
ry at home, the growth of the true import of mis¬ 
sions, of missionary societies and their spiritual 
and material agencies. The times are past when, 
as ninety years ago, the great pioneer of English 
missions in the East Indies, Dr. Carey, could be 
silenced in his speech before that stupid confer¬ 
ence of pastors at Northampton, while discussing 
the “ church’s duty with regard to missions ; ” ^ or 
when the Scotch General Assembly, about eighty 
years ago, in their first debate on missions, declared 
a speech of similar character to be fanciful and 
laughable, 3 ^ea, as even dangerous and revolution¬ 
ary, until the aged Dr. John Erskine, rising up, and 
la^^ing his trembling hand upon the Eible, hurled 
like a thunder-bolt among the awe-struck assembly 
the commands and promises with regard to mis¬ 
sions, and thus recalled it to a sense of its long- 
neglected duty; 2 or when a German professor of 
theology, in 1798, declared, in regard to the found- 

1 Marshman, Life and Times of Carey, I. p. 10 ; Christlieb, 
Der Missionsberuf des Evangelisclien Deutschlands, p. 39. 

2 Dr. AYallaee at the annual meeting of the London Mission¬ 
ary Society : see Chronicles of the London Missionary Society, 
June, 1875, p. 130, sqq. 



• 12 PEOTESTAXT FOEEIGX :NnSSIOXS: 

ing of a missionary society in East Friesland, that 
the German culture had not yet reached that 
remote corner; ^ or when, as in 1810, those pious 
students of Andoyer, Mass., led by Adoniram Jud- 
soii, afterward pioneer missionary to Burmah, were 
obliged to ask the Association of Congregation- 
alists in Massachusetts, whether they considered 
their thoughts on foreign missions “ yisionary and 
impracticable,” and, if not, whether in carrying out 
these ideas, they might expect the necessary aid 
from America.^ Aow all Scotland is proud of such 
missionaries as Dr. Duff; now she has raised a 
great monument in her capital in honor of her 
peace-conqueror of Africa, Bible and axe in hand, 
as a speaking witness to the conviction that true 
ciyilization cannot go forward without the mission 
and the gospel. Xow she sends, followed by Eng¬ 
land, whole mission-colonies into the heart of Afri¬ 
ca, to perpetuate the services of Livingstone. Xow 
it has been proved in England, — a triumph which 
this hero foresaw decades ago, — that the scornful 
laugh over “ Exeter Hall ” was as a risus sardon- 
icus and the political press of England already 
very wisely sj)eaks with acknowledgment and es¬ 
teem of the acliievements of the great missionary 

1 Warneck, Die christliche Mission, 1870, p, 18, sqq. 

2 Tracy, History of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, p. 26. 

3 Livingstone, Missionary Sacrifices : see the Catholic Presby¬ 
terian, January, 18<9, p. 32, and Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift 
(Giitersloh), April, 1879, supplement, p. 25. 


MISSIONARY SPIRIT AT HOME. 


13 


societies. Now America, England alone excepted, 
is before all other lands in interest and willing¬ 
ness to sacrifice for the cause of missions, while 
certain of her great missionary societies can without 
difficulty draw their full supply of laborers from 
the theological seminaries. Now there are in all 
Protestant lands, large and small, missionary socie¬ 
ties firmly established in the life of the Church by 
the aid of countless auxiliary societies; and what 
fifty years ago was a very unusual occurrence, 
viz., annual missionary festivals, has become a 
much-cherished custom in thousands of cities and 
villages. Now, here and there, even in German 
universities, historical lectures on missions are 
given, and recognized even by liberal professors as 
setting forth genuine religion, — the present mis¬ 
sion-work as “ under all circumstances a most 
important and characteristic feature of Christian¬ 
ity,” and as proving its just merits.^ 

But we shall best see the immense progress of 
missions by the following available figures. At 
the close of the last century there were really but 
seven Protestant missionary societies. Of those 
but three, the Propagation Society (which worked 
chiefly among the English colonists), the Halle- 
Danish, and the Moravian, had worked through the 
greater part of the century; whilst four, the Bap¬ 
tist, London, and Church Missionary societies, and 

1 e. g., Von Buss, Cliristliclie Mission, ihre prenzipielle Be- 
richtigung und praktisclie Durchfuhrung, 1876, pp. 1-14, 34-128. 




14 


PROTESTANT EOREIGN MISSIONS: 


the Dutch Society of Rotterdam, were first estab¬ 
lished in the last decade of the last century. TOii 
day these seven have become seventy in Europe andi; 
America alone; viz., twenty-seven in Great Brit-; 
ain, eighteen in America, nine in Germany (includ¬ 
ing Basel and Schleswig-Holstein), nineteen in; 
Holland (exclusive of independent auxiliaries),! 
and in Scandinavia, Denmark, and Finland to-| 
gether, five,^ one in France, and one in Canton | 
de Vaud. i 

To these seventy must be added not only many 
independent missionary societies in the colonies, i 
such as those in Sierra Leone, in Cape Colony, and 
Australia, with a number of smaller societies in 
the East Indies, but also certain self-supporting, 
newly established native Christian societies, whicli 
are sending out missionaries: daughter societies 
of England and America, like the native mission¬ 
ary society in Madagascar, a daughter of the Lon¬ 
don society, aided by the Palace congregation ; the 
Hawaiian Evangelical Society, a daughter of the 
American Board in Boston; and lately a grand¬ 
daughter of the same, the missionary society in 
Ponape, in the Carolina Archipelago.^ 

1 I include here only two Swedish societies (Fosterlands 
Stiftelsen, and the Church Mission, under the Archbishop,of 
Upsala), as the older Swenska mission, Sallskapet, has trans¬ 
ferred its missions to the Church Mission, and now only labors 
among the semi-heathen Laps. 

For further particulars see the Easier Missions-Magazine, 
Sept., 1878, p. 353, sqq. For the latest accounts of the Native 
Missionary Society of Madagascar, see the Report of the London 
Missionary Society, 1879, p. 36, and Chronicle of do., June, 1880. 




THEIR GREAT PROGRESS. 


15 


At the beginning of our century the whole num- 
)er of male missionaries employed by these seven 
societies was one hundred and seventy. Of these 

V 

ibont one hundred belonged to the Moravians, 
bo-day there are in the employ of the seventy 
jocieties, about twenty-four hundred ordained 
Europeans and Americans,^ hundreds of ordained 
lative preachers (in the East Indies alone, over 
four hundred, and about the same number in the 
South Seas), over twenty-three thousand native 
helpers, catechists, evangelists, and teachers, not 
counting the numerous female assistants, private 
missionaries, lay helpers, colporteurs of the Bible 
societies in heathen lands, and the thousands of 
voluntary unpaid Sunday-school teachers.^ 

Eighty years ago, if I may venture an estimate, 
there were scarcely fifty thousand converted hea¬ 
then under the care of evangelical missions, not 
counting the so-called “government Christians ” in 
Ceylon, who so quickly fell back. To-day we may 
confidently reckon the whole number of native 

1 Compare Warneck, as cited above, pp. 20, 2G, 31; and the 
same: Die gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen der Modernen 
Mission und Cultur, Allgemeine Conservative Monatsschrift, 
June, 1879, p. 439. In the reports of many evangelical societies, 
those who work as pastors among the colonists and other de¬ 
nominations are counted as missionaries; so tiiat in English and 
American missionary periodicals, the total is often given as from 

twenty-five to twenty-six hundred. 

2 The June Notices of the TVesleyan Methodist Missionary 
Society, 1880, p. 132, states the number of its Sunday-school 
teachers and other unpaid agents, as 7,808 (including the stations 
on the Continent of Euroi^e). 


16 


PEOTESTANT EOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


converts in our evangelical mission stations as a' 
least one million six hundred and fifty thousand 
And the year 1878 alone shows a growth of more 
than the total number at the beginning of this 
century, viz., about sixty thousand souls. If 1 
add to this that of the present total, — there are 
about three hundred and ten thousand in the West 
Indies and Madagascar, four to five hundred thou¬ 
sand in India and Farther India,^ forty to fifty 
thousand in West Africa, one hundred and eighty 
thousand in South Africa,^ over two hundred and 
forty thousand in Madagascar, ninety thousand in 
the Indian Archipelago, forty-five to fifty thou¬ 
sand in China, and more than three hundred thou¬ 
sand in the South Sea Islands, — we see that a 
large number of coast-lands and especially islands 
are Christianized, and may be counted as won for 
the Protestant Church. 

i 

I do not speak here of the astounding growth of 
particular societies, some of which in our century 
have grown to giant trees, whose branches cast a 
refreshing shade over half the earth. The largest 
of the old missionary societies, the Moravian, had, 
in 1801, in twenty-six stations, one hundred and 
sixty-one brethren and sisters in its service, and 


1 Rev. M. A. Sherring in the Proceedings of the General Confer¬ 
ence on Foreign Missions (Mildmay, London, 1878, p. 120) reckons 
the total in India, Ceylon, and Burmah, as 460,000. 

2 According to Rev. J. E. Carlyle, South Africa and its Mis¬ 
sion Fields, London, 1879. 


THEIH GREAT RROGRESS. 


17 


about twenty thousand native Christians^ To¬ 
day she has three hundred and twenty-seven breth¬ 
ren and sisters, ninety-five stations, and seventy- 
three thousand one hundred and seventy native 
Christians.^ The English Church Missionary So¬ 
ciety, now eighty years old, had in its employ in 
1819, twenty-six ordained European missionaries; 
in 1839, eighty-six; in 1859, one hundred and sev¬ 
enty-seven; in 1880, two hundred and eleven; in 
1819, no native preachers ; in 1839, two ; in 1859, 
forty-five ; and in 1880, two hundred ; two thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and forty European and 
native teachers and evangelists, one hundred and 
ninety-two stations, and one hundred and thirty- 
nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-two 
native Christians. Their annual income after the 
first twenty years was over $125,000 ; after forty 
years, over $337,500 ; after sixty years, over 
$610,000 ; and now it has risen from $937,500 
to $1,108,000.3 

We find the same progress with the Wesleyans, 
the London and Propagation Societies, the Ameri¬ 
can Board, and in smaller proportion also with the 
German and remaining societies. I wish to point 
you also to the following criteria of progress. 

1 Reicliel, Das Missions-werk der Briiderkirche, Allgemeine 
Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 457. 

2 Missionsblatt der Briidcrgemeinde, Juli, 1879; Ueberblick 
iiber das Missions-werk, p. 48. 

3 Abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary Society, 
May, 1880, pp. 21 and 24, and May, 1878, p. 24. 


18 


PP.OTESTAXT rOPvEIGX MISSIONS: 


Eighty years ago the entire income for evangelical 
foreign missions was much less than 8250,000: to¬ 
day the annual receipts have advanced from 
86,000,000 to 86,250,000 (about five times the 
amount raised by the Roman Catholic Propa¬ 
ganda ^), of which England furnishes about 
83,500,000, America 81,T50,000, Germany 81,250,- 
000, Switzerland from 8500,000 to 8750,000. 

Eighty years ago the total number of evangeli¬ 
cal missionary schools was not over seventy: to¬ 
day they number nearly twelve thousand, with more 
'than four hundred thousand scholars,^ amongf whom 
there are hundreds of native candidates for the 
ministry, receiving instruction in the high schools 
and theological seminaries. In India alone, there 
are now two thousand five hundred mission-schools; 
in Polynesia, the Wesleyans alone have one thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and five da 3 ^-schools,^ with 
over forW-nine thousand scholars; in ^Madagascar, 
the London Missionary Society has seven hundred 
and eightjMour day-schools, with forty-four thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and ninetv-four scholars : the 
English Church Missionary Society, in all their 
stations, one thousand five hundred and four 

1 According to the Jahrbiichern zur Verbreitung des Glan- 
bens, their total income in 1878, from all parts of the Catholic 
world, was only $1,221,100. 

2 Warneck, see above, p. 31; and Mission und Cultur, p. 439. 

2 Report of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1879, 

p. 195. 

4 Report of the London IMissioiiary Society, 1879, p. 30. 


THEIR GREAT RROGRESS. 


19 


schools, with fifty-seven thousand three hundred 
ind eighty ^ scholars. 

III. At the beginning of our century, there exist- 
3 d only about fifty translations of the Scriptures, 
listributed in about five million copies. Since 
1804, i.e., since the founding of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, the Bible or principal parts 
have been translated into at least two hundred and 
twenty-six languages and dialects ; viz., the whole 
into fift 3 ^-five, the New Testament into eighty-four, 
particular parts into eighty-seven. And the dis¬ 
tribution amounts to about one hundred and forty- 
eight million copies.^ The most of this work was 
done by evangelical missionaries, who within about 
seventy years have reduced to writing sixty or 
seventy languages which were without a litera¬ 
ture. Or if, instead of going back to the be¬ 
ginning of this century, we take the last thirty 
years, what a sudden increase, both of work and 
results ! The Bhenish mission among the Battas 
in Sumatra was started .in 18C1: to-day it has 
eleven stations, and about thirty-five hundred 
baptized converts. The Basel mission on the Gold 

1 Abstract of the Report, &c., 1879, above. 

2 Reed, The Bible Work of the World, in the Proceedings of 
the General Conference on Foreign Missions, held in Mildmay 
Park (October, 1878), London, 1879, pp. 231-2:34; and the whole list 
of the new translations of the Bible in onr century, pp. 414-428. 
In the Extract of the Seventy-fifth Annual Pvcport of the British 
Bible Society, Berlin Branch, 1879, p. 67, it is stated that Bi¬ 
bles, or parts of the Bible, in three hundred and eight languages 
and dialects have been printed and distributed. 


20 


PEOTESTAXT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


Coast in 1848 liad only about forty baptized ne¬ 
groes, and -three stations: to-day there are four 
thousand converts, and twenty-four principal sta¬ 
tions and outposts. The Gossner mission among 
the Kohls in India had but four baptized converts 
in 1850: to-day there are about thirty thousand 
baptized Kohls under its care, and about ten thou¬ 
sand in that of the Propagation Society. 

In 1843 all the English and American mission¬ 
aries for China assembled at Hong-Kong, which 
had just been surrendered to England. There 
were twelve, and the number of Chinese converts 
upon this island was six. To-day China, at last 
opened, iias two hundred and forty missionaries 
from Europe and America, ninety principal and 
over five hundred out-stations (see below); and the 
number of Chinese communicants has increased 
more than two thousand fold I ^ The same rapid 
progress is seen in Southern India, and Burmah, 
in the South Seas, and among the Christians of 
Turkey. In 1860 there were scarcely twenty 
medical missionaries in the evangelical foreign 
missions : now there are ninety who labor as phy- 
sicians^^ and evangelists at the same time.^ And 
the same progress is manifest in the Woman’s Mis- 
sionaiy Society for the evangelization of the wom¬ 
en of India and Turkey. But of more worth than 

According to Professor Pr. Legge, Mildmay Conference, pp. 
170, 171. 

2 According to Eev. Dr. Lowe, Mildmay Conference, p. 77. 


POWER OF THE GOSl’EL. 


21 


numerical statistics is the immeasurably deep and 
wide-spread moral induence of the gospel, as is ex¬ 
hibited to-day ill the regeneration of whole heathen 
tribes, yea, in the processes of reform plainly be¬ 
gun in the great heathen lands; reforms of social 
life, and the old abominations and immoralities, 
out of the thousand-years’ degradation, into the 
civilized forms of man’s existence, the true bibli¬ 
cal idea of man’s worth and self-esteem, this first 
condition of all genuine civilization; obtaining 
from decade to decade a new idea of marriage, as 
sacred; some appreciation of the family, of edu¬ 
cation and civil order. We shall hereafter learn 
more of this. For the present, but one thing 
further. 

Until within thirty years, one might express a 
doubt as to whether the gospel could elevate and 
heal the most degraded heathen, and prove a sa¬ 
vor of life unto life. But to-day the Portuguese can 
no lonofer maintain that the Hottentots are a race 
of apes, incapable of Christianization. You can 
no longer find written over church-doors in Cape 
Colony, “ Dogs and Hottentots not admitted,” as 
at the time when Dr. Van der Kemp fought there 
for the rights of the downtrodden natives. To¬ 
day no one could be found to agree with the 
French governor of the island of Bourbon, who 
called out to the first missionary to JMadagascar, 
“So you will make the Malagasy Christians? Im¬ 
possible ! they are mere brutes, and have no more 





PEOTESTAXT FOEEIGX MISSIONS : 


22 

sense than irrational cattle;”^ since there are 
hundreds of eran^elical cono-resfations established 
there, which have now, counting those only of the 
London ^Mission, three hundred and eighty-six or¬ 
dained native pastors, one hundred and fifty-six 
native evangelists, and three thousand four hun¬ 
dred and sixty-eight native lay preachers and 
Bible-readers.- 

Tweutv vears ago Englishmen who had trav- 
elled around the world insisted to me that the 
native Australians were absolutely beyond reach 
of the gospel, and must first be educated up to it 
in some wav, before they could understand its 
simplest truths.^ To-day this opinion is refuted 
by the Moravian missions in Gippslaud, wliich have 
fine churches, clean houses, and one hundred and 
twenty-five baptizecf native Christians^ Yes, we 
have to-day, as the last Evangelical Alliance in 
Xew York demonstrated, the glorious faith¬ 
strengthening joy, of seeing^ it proved without 
more missionary statistics that the most degraded 
heathen, because they are also men, listen to 
the gospel, and learn to believe it; that no race 

1 Eppler, Madagascar, 1871, p. GO, compared with p. 85. 

2 Eeport of the London ^Missionary Society (May, 1879), p. 28. 

3 See, for further particulars as to the opinion that culture 
should, in principle and systematically, precede missions, the 
paper just published by Dr. Warneck, Die gegeuseitigen Bezie- 
hungen zwischen der Modernen Mission und Cultur, 1879, p. 214, 
sqq. 

^ Uberhlick iiber das Missionswerk der Briidergemeiude, 
June, 1879, p. 40, sqq. 


23 


TOWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

is so spiritually dead that it cannot be quickened 
^into new life by the “ glad tidings ; ” no language 
is so barbarous that the Bible cannot be trans¬ 
lated into it; no individual heathen so brutish 
that he cannot become a new creature in Christ 
Jesus; and that, therefore, our Lord and Master, 
revealing himself to us as the Way, tlie Truth, and 
the Life, in the widest sense, gave no impossible 
command when, embracing without limit all suf¬ 
fering humanity, he said, “ Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature.” ^ 

For a long^ time Protestant Christendom could 
scarcely believe the possibility of this. To-day 
thousands of converted cannibals in the South 
Seas, Esquimaux and Indians in America, Bush¬ 
men and Pesherehs of Tierra del Fuego, yea, even 
Papuans in Australia and New Guinea, stand 
there as living witnesses to this truth! Truly, 
in reviewing this field of evangelical missions, 
which ill extent and effects has gained such im¬ 
mense proportions, we must, in humble thankful¬ 
ness to the Lord of the Church, join to-day that 
champion of missions in South Germany, Dr. 
Barth, in saying: — 

“ Where we hardly dared to hope, 

Now the doors stand open wide: 

Slow and faint we only grope, 

Following Thy victorious stride.” 

1 Bishop Schweinitz, IMissions among the Lowest of the 
Heathen. See Evangelical Alliance Conference, 1873 (New 
York), p. G19, sqq.; Allgeineine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, March, 
p. 115. 




24 


PROTESTAXT FOREIGN mSSIONS : 


IV. But the encouraging picture has its reverse, 
and forces us, in this comparison of the past and 
present, as by the consideration of the present and 
luture, to much earnest meditation. It is with 
foreign missions as with many a Christian labor of 
love: the work grows, the more earnestly we en¬ 
gage in it. We rejoice that on almost every sea- 
coast and island the davm is breaking; yea, on 
many the sun has risen. We do not consider 
humble beginnings trifling; but we must not for¬ 
get, that in most of our mission-fields, even among 
the greatest and relativelv best-educated heathen 
nations, not\vithstanding the glorious progress on 
the whole, nothing more than promising begin¬ 
nings have been made, and, by wise observers, 
notliing more coifld be expected. What are a 
little more than one and a half millions of our 
baptized converts, compared to the thousand mill¬ 
ions of heathen and Mohammedans? What our 
forty-five to fifty thousand evangelized Chinese, 
against the hundreds of millions of heathen in the 
Celestial Empire ? Excepting Europe and North 
America, the great inland provinces of all other 
parts of the world have scarcely been visited by 
the messengers of the gospel, far from being occu¬ 
pied, much less conquered. Again, in our most 
flourishing mission-fields, only in part of the con¬ 
gregations has the work come to perfection, so 
that churches support themselves, and pro^dde 
education for their children and their ministry, as 


' THE EEVEESE OF THIS FICTUEE. 25 

I 

' those in the West Indies, in Sierra Leone, at the 
Cape, in Madagascar, Southern India, the South 
Sea Islands, and most of all in the Hawaiian. The 
education of native Christians as true, positive, 
independent preachers, has only made a hopeful 
beginning. There remains still much land to he 
gained, — yea, an hundred times more than has 
been already won. Moreover, in many provinces 
the task of missions seems more difficult to-day 
than ever. To be sure, beginnings are everywhere 
difficult, so that more than a beginning is made 
when it is already there. It is often a foundation 
laid for incalculable results. iMuch is indeed 
gained when simply the key to a heathen nation, 
its language, is fully in the grasp of the mission¬ 
ary. But often the chief obstacles first appear in 
the further development of the work; ^ as, for 
instance, some missions begun years ago with 
great promise, now only give the hope of'saving a 
little remnant of the tribes labored with. 

The sudden and often brutal advance of white 
settlers, gold-diggers, liquor-merchants, and others, 
with their demoralizing influences, disturb and 
scatter the scarcely-gathered little flock, and rouse 
the feeling of rage against every pale-face, until 
it becomes an almost unconquerable hate. I 
need only direct your attention to South Africa, 
Australia, New Zealand, and the Indian provinces 
of North America. To undermine a giant strong- 

1 Christlieb, Foreign Missions. 




26 


PROTESTA^^T FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


liolcl of darkness like Hindooism, was and is in 
itself difficult enough work; but how infinitely 
more difficult when, as is now the case, educated 
Hindoos confront the missionaries with quotations 
from Hegel, Strauss, and Renan! when, in a hea¬ 
then land, besides superstition, we must contend 
with Christian unbelief; when the heathen youth, ^ 
eager to learn, as in Japan, are taught by material¬ 
istic professors; when superstition, as is often the 
case among the youth of India, has added to it 
religious indifference and Nihilism I 

The buhvark of Islam has not yet been under¬ 
mined, much less stormed by a concentrated 
attack. 

But how would it be, if, in the throes of the 
death-struggle already begun, the false prophet 
with a powerful followung should begin again to 
j)roselyte ? Look at Central Africa in its whole 
extent, and the Malays in the Indian Archipelago. 
See wdiere the gospel knocks at the doors of lands 
which decades ago were open, but which in the 
interim have been closed by Islam ! And, further, 
in many heathen lands the missionaries have often 
received the impression that they would have had 
easier entrance if they had come centuries earlier. 
God’s plan by which he brings his kingdom to 
j^articular nations does not remove man’s responsi¬ 
bility on account of negligence. Where, to-day, 
can Protestant missions make any great ad¬ 
vance, without having the Romanists immediately 


THE EEVEESE OF THIS PICTUEE. 



at their heels? In Madagascar and Central 
Africa, in the South Seas and British North 
America, wherever it is possible, they seek to 
paralyze the progress of the gospel by their influ¬ 
ence ; yet perhaps the growing opposition of dark¬ 
ness is only another proof of the progress of light, 
— a proof that it finds itself more and more in its 
power. 

But what if the darkest spots in the firma¬ 
ment of missions are not to be sought in 
opposition on the mission-fields, but in the condi¬ 
tion of the home churches themselves? Where 
is the deep enthusiasm displayed at the time 
when most of our missionary societies were 
founded? as in September, 1795, when venerable 
gray-headed ministers from the English Church 
and Dissenters fell weeping into each other’s 
arms, in tlie chapel of Lady Huntingdon,^ and, 
clasping hands over all narrow denominational 
limits, founded the London Missionary Society. 
Where is that spirit of cheerful sacrifice, when, as 
at the ordination of the first four Barmen mission- 
aides in 1829, the ‘contribution-plates were filled, 
not only with money, but with gold chains, 
watches, rings, and jewelry of all kinds ? ^ Where 
is that spirit to-day?, Without, among the hea- 

1 See Ostertag, Ubersichtliche Gescliichte der Protest. Mis- 
sionen, 1858, p. 44. 

2 V. Pohden, Gescliichte der rheiuischen Miss.-Gesellschaft, 
Aug. 2, 1871, p. 21. 



28 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS. 


then converts, the fire of new love flames up here 
and there, to the same zeal for the cause of Christ; 
hut where in the home church ? Who does not 
feel the sting of truth in the complaint lately 
made ? “ The chief danger for missions lies, I see, 
in this: that missionary enterprise will glide into 
routine, missionary zeal become so much rhetoric, 
and participation in missionary work degenerate 
into a matter of habit, not to say of ecclesiastical 
business. The chief hinderance among us to ear¬ 
nest prosecution of missions lies not in the spiteful 
attacks of an hostile world: it lies in those circles 
which appear friendly to missions, but which deny 
their power.” ^ 

Until recently the interest in missions at home 
has kept pace with the extension of the work 
abroad, as is shown from decade to decade by the 
increase in the receipts of the societies. But for 
a number of years past, in many large societies, 
especially in Germany, considerable deficits have 
become chronic. Is this only a result of the wide¬ 
spread commercial distress, — only temporary ? 
or shall the contributions for missions lack our 
support for a long time ? It appears doubtful to 
many that the present material power of missions 
can be increased. Already many boards of direct¬ 
ors, in spite of the pressing calls for help from 

1 Warneck, Die Belebungdes Missionssinnes in cler Heimath, 
1878, p. 2(), sqq. Compare also Alden (American Board), Shall 
we have a Missionary Revival ? p. 4. 


THE EEVEESE OF THIS FICTURE. 


29 


tlie heathen world, have placed the questions of 
retrenchment and even withdrawal among the sub¬ 
jects for their discussion. Even in England and 
America, here and there the necessity of retrench¬ 
ment throws its gloomy shade upon their deliber¬ 
ations. Will they all soon come into the happy 
position of the American Board of Boston,^ and 
be able to deliver their missionaries from the fear 
of being withdrawn from their hard-won stations ? 

In this state of affairs, however one may still fos¬ 
ter faith-inspiring hopes, to me this mncli is sure, 
from this comparison of the past and present, 
that by no means do all the circumstances show 
favorably for the present, and that we have so 
much the more to thank God for, since not through 
us, but in spite of us, and notwithstanding the luke¬ 
warmness and conformity to the world of the 
present race of Christians, his work has made such 
mighty progress. But we have come to the con¬ 
sideration of the second topic. 

1 What the Missionaries think of Relief from Retrenchment: 
Missionary Herald, July, 1879, p. 244. 


30 


PEOTESTANT EOEEIGN MISSIONS; 


IL 

MISSION AGENCIES OF THE CHUECHES AT HOME. 

I Avill confine myself now to some compara¬ 
tive considerations, of real practical tendency, only 
using the endless detail of statistics now and then 
for illustration. In doing this, I shall first con¬ 
sider the source of missionary life at home, the 
churches and their missionary achievements, then 
the technical instrumentalities, namely, the mis¬ 
sionary societies and their modes of operation. 

I. In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, 
and her missions united closely, and rigorously 
centralized, there stands before us the Peot- 
ESTANT ChUECH, IN HEE MISSIONAEY ACTIVITY 
SEPAEATED INTO MANY DIVISIONS. That this is 
not a hinderance and danger, but an absolute ad¬ 
vantage and blessing, is seen nowhere so clearly 
as in the mission-field itself. “The variety we 
exhibit in our churches, our societies, our modes 
of worship,” says the excellent Dr. iMullens,^ “ is 
not an evil to be mourned over: it is a positive 
blessing to our cause.” 

Each of the endless number of fields of labor, 
with their various needs, requires a special mode of 


1 Conference on Foreign Missions, Mildmay, 1878, p. 26. 


AGENCIES OF THE HOME CHURCHES. 31 

operation, yea, form of worship and government 
(see IV., at the close). For the gradual educa¬ 
tion up to the missionaiy standard of character 
— strong individuality — the variety of our modes 
of education are, without doubt, far more useful 
in the service of our missions, than the Fomisli 
method of yoking together all into a compulsory 
system of blind obedience. However our differ- 
ences in teaching have their disadvantages for the 
mission-work, opposed to heathenism, they fall, 
as a rule, into the background. In a land where 
the people pray to coavs, as Macaulay said on his 
return from India, the differences Avhich separate 
Christians from Christians are of small account. 
On all essential points, our missionaries agree. 
So that recently Lord Northbrook, the former 
governor-general of India, publicly expressed his 
astonishment at the falling-aAvay, in India, of dog¬ 
matical differences, and at the oneness of all mis¬ 
sionaries and Christians of the various denomina¬ 
tions, as to fundamental doctrines.^ And I think 
the recent general missionary conferences in India 
and China establish the fact most clearly, that 
missionary work, more than any thing else, leads 
to practical union. If noAV we compare particu¬ 
lar churches and lands, in respect to missionary 
achievements, Ave see that England on account of 

1 At this year’s May meeting of tlie London Baptist Missionary 
Society: see Evangelieal Christendom, June, 1879, p. 175; AA^ar- 
aeck, Beziehungen zwischeu d. mod. Mission und Cultur (see 
aboA^e), p. 44(3. 


32 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN ^MISSIONS : 


her wealth, her numerous and great colonies and 
skill in their practical management, has a missionary 
duty greater than all other nations; and in fact 
she takes the lead. In the princfipal achievements 
of the Protestant world in foreign missions, the 
greater part has fallen on Great Britain, both in 
regard to contributions (often more than three 
million five hundred thousand dollars per year), and 
in the number of stations and workers (about thir¬ 
teen hundred ordained European missionaries), 
while she has far more than half the whole num¬ 
ber of baptized converts. If we compare the 
success of particular churches, in proportion to 
their size, this fact is immediately apparent, which 
1 as a member of a national Church may speak of: 
namely, that the great state Churches are far out¬ 
done by the smaller independent Churches. Es¬ 
pecially is this the case in Scotland. The Scotch 
Established Church, although in the number of 
congregations and ministers ^ by far the largest in 
Scotland, is greatly surpassed by the two principal 
independent Churches, the Free Church and the 
United Presbyterian, both in contributions, num¬ 
ber of stations, and the like, although the latter at 
the same time must meet the wants of their own 
home churches. The state Church, with half a 
million communicants, has only raised during the 

1 Of the 3,000 Scotch ministers, 1,380 helon<? to the Established 
Church, 1,0()0 to the Free Church, 500 to the United Presbyterian 
Church. See the Catholic Presbyterian, August, 1879, p. 148. 


DIFFERENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 


33 


: past few years about a liundrecl and twenty-five 
, thousand dollars for foreign missions; while the 
United Presbyterian Church, witli one hundred and 
seventy thousand members, contributed between 
; one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand 
j dollars. Thus in the state Church, each member 
pays about twenty-five cents; in the United Pres¬ 
byterian Church, from one dollar to one dollar and 
twenty-five cents; ^ and the average in the Free 
Church, which is indeed richer, is not much less, 
being two hundred and twenty-five thousand dol¬ 
lars for foreign missions, from two hundred and 
twenty thousand members,—a disproportion for 
the state Church, which will be found to increase 
continually. The English state Church also, al¬ 
though the Propagation and Church Missionary So¬ 
cieties, the University Mission and other small soci¬ 
eties be included, in respect to contributions and 
workers, furnishes almost one-half of the whole 
amount for foreign missions from Great Britain; 
and, although she is the richest evangelical church 
in the world, can with difficulty bear compari¬ 
son with the missions of the Noncohformists,^ 

1 The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, 
April, 1879, pp. 457 and 430; Life and Work, August, 1879, p. 126, 
sqq.; Warneck, Belebung des Missionssinnes, p. 94, sqq. 

2 According to Canon Scott Robertson, the sum raised by the 
Church of England for missions in 1878 amounts to $2,330,365; by 
English Nonconformist missionary societies, to $1,621,155; and, 
by the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian societies, to $695,055. See 
Missionary Herald, Boston, February, 1879, p. 69. 




34 


PROTEST^INT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


if we throw into the other side of the scale 
the Wesleyan, London, Baptist, English Presbyte¬ 
rian, the Primitive Methodist, the United Method¬ 
ist Free Church, China Inland, and other smaller 
societies. Still more striking is the difference, 
when we compare the little Moravian Church, with 
its twenty thousand grown members in Europe 
and America, — although indeed from the begin¬ 
ning a missionary church without comparison, and 
one wdiich alone, of all the Continental churches in 
Europe, can dispute rank with the United Presby¬ 
terian Church of Scotland, — when we compare it 
and its contribution of one dollar and twelve cents 
per head,^ with the great German state Church, 
in which, here and there (reckoning young and 
old), only one-half to three-quarters of a cent per 
head is given. Whence this difference ? Is it not 
plainly from this : that the free church congrega¬ 
tions carry on the work as churches under the 
immediate control of their Board of Direction, 
and expect that each member, even the youngest, 
shall take a personal part in the churches’ activity 
for the Master, while the state and national 
churches, as churches in their collective capacity, 
do not take up this work, and at times cannot, but 
transfer the fulfilment of this duty to particular 
societies and the special friends of missions ? It is 

1 Twenty tbonsand four hundred and twenty-nine adults in 
the three provinces of that church (in Germany, England, and 
America) raised recently the sum of about §22,500 for missions. 


DIFFEP.ENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 


35 


not owing to this alone, but also because the na¬ 
tional churches are composed partly of the rich, 
among whom, with few noble exceptions, warm 
hearts and open hands are not found for the mis¬ 
sion cause ; partly of the poor, and these from their 
scanty supply of bread can send almost nothing 
across the sea; partly of the lukewarm, indiffer¬ 
ent, and worldly, who (as a state church professor 
in Edinburgh recently complained) if there were 
no state church, Avould belong to no church, 
because the kingdom of Christ has but little inter¬ 
est for them in any case : whilst the free church 
demands, of each one becoming a member, a deep 
religious interest in the church and her work. 
Hence a system of giving for the church and church- 
work prevails here, and there is a regular con¬ 
tribution according to ability (compare especially 
the Wesleyans), which is an unheard-of thing in 
the state church. Every church must grow con¬ 
tinually, in order truly to exist. But especially 
so with free churches that do not inherit, from the 
fathers, millions, a fixed domain, a sure place in 
the life of the people, but are obliged to gain all 
this by hard toil: these have a great predisposi¬ 
tion for all self-extension and missionary activity. 
This also explains in a great measure the lively 
and general missionary interest among the evan¬ 
gelical denominations of the United States, which 
long ago learned to stand, walk, and work for 
themselves, without help from the State. It may 



8G 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


be clue also to other causes, especially to the 
growth of a spirit of evangelization within Prot¬ 
estantism in general. But it is not a matter 
of mere accident, that great activity in missions 
first began after all the rights of a state church 
in New England ceased, and after the stubborn 
part of the old rationalism, the Unitarians, had sep¬ 
arated from the remaining Congregationalists. 
Without, separated from the help of the State ; 
within, purged from the prostrating influences of 
the old unbelief, — these la^t could and must per¬ 
force bring into action the resources of a powerful 
development which lay hidden within them. And 
how great this development has been toward for¬ 
eign missions I The missionary societies, with 
about $1,750,000 income and six hundred ordained 
missionaries, mostly taken from the universities, 
is a striking example. 

In no other land have missions, like all other 
educational institutions, received such large gifts 
from private individuals as in America. The 
average contribution also shows such a general 
interest in missions as is seen elsewhere only 
in free churches. Years ago the gray-headed 
mission-historian. Dr. Anderson of Boston, com¬ 
puted that, of all the member's of the Congre¬ 
gational churches, only one-quarter or one-third 
gave no contribution to missions.^ This fraction 

1 Anderson: Foreign Missions, their Relations and Claims, 
third edition, 1870, p. 26. 


DIFFERENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 


37 


may since have been reduced. There was con¬ 
tributed last year to foreign missions, by about 
three hundred and seventy-five thousand members 
of the Congregational churches,^ five hundred and 
eleven thousand dollars,^ or one dollar and thirty- 
seven cents per head; by about six hundred and 
eighty-two thousand members of both Presbyte¬ 
rian Churches, North and South,^ five hundred and 
sixty-two thousand dollars, or eighty-seven cents 
per head.^ The fact that the second largest of all 
the churches in the United States, the Methodist 
Episcopal of the North, with about one million 
seven hundred thousand communicants, or six 
million nine hundred thousand normal members,^ 
gives less to foreign missions (1878, two hundred 
and eighty-five thousand dollars ^), is due to this, 

1 See paper read at the Basel Alliance, by Dr. Schaff: Chris¬ 
tianity in the United States, pp. 14 and 30, sqq. 

2 According to Annual Report for 1879: see Missionary Herald, 
•November, 1879, p. 414 ; the great legacy of Asa Otis, of about 
^1,000,000 (p. 415) is not included. 

3 According to Dr. Schaff (see above), the number of commu¬ 
nicants in the Presbyterian Church of the North in 1878 amounted 
to more than 507,000 ; in that of the South, to above 114,000. 

4 The sum raised for missions in the Presbyterian Church of 
the North amounted, according to Annual Report of May, 1879, 
p. 81, to $425,000 : last year, to $461,000. Cf. also Der christliche 
Apologete (Cincinnati), July 7, 1879. 

5 According to statistics for 1879, 1,709,000 communicants ; for 
1878, 1,688,000. See Schaff, pp. 14 and 30. 

6 Missionary Herald, Boston, June, 1879, p. 229 ; for foreign 
missions, $272,114, besides, for missions to the Indians, $13,500 ; 
besides, for native missions, $221,800: in 1877, altogether $628,- 
000. See Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Method¬ 
ist Episcopal Church, 1879, p. 30. 


38 ~ PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 

namely, that she is laying particular stress upon 
the spread of the Church at home, among the 
negroes in the South and the settlements of the^ 
West. The same is true of the Baptist churches, 
the largest in the land, with two million one hun¬ 
dred and two thousand communicants, which,> 
exclusive of their work in Europe, gave last year 
only 8252,677 for foreign missions.^ Of the two 
thousand nine hundred parishes (four thousand 
two hundred congregations) of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, only eleven hundred and sev¬ 
enty contributed last year (total income 8139,- 
971), which is relatively small, but shows a marked 
improvement on the past. The same is true of 
the Lutheran churches, while some of the other 
smaller bodies, e.g., the five hundred and ten 
Dutch Reformed churches, are so active in mis¬ 
sions, that they are not behind the first-named 
larger churches, in their zeal. 

If we consider the missionary work done by 
the people of the European continent, we must 
begin with Holland. With fifty missionaries and 
an annual contribution of about three hundred and 
twenty thousand florins (in 1877, three hundred 
and seventeen thousand florins), she stands equal 
to any Continental country. Whether or no this 
sum corresponds to the great wealth of the land, 
and her extraordinary duty in missions, on account 

1 See Missionary Herald, August, 1879, p. 308; Her christliche 
Apologete, July 14, 1879. 


MISSIOXAEY SOCIETIES. 


39 


of hei’ large colonies, I leave to the kind considera¬ 
tion of my esteemed brethren from Holland. We 
notice especially in this land the number of mis¬ 
sionary societies. No Protestant land has so many 
in proportion. In Holland there are as many soci¬ 
eties as in Germany with tenfold greater number 
of Protestants, — namely, nine, including two aux¬ 
iliary societies for the INloravian and the Rheinish 
missions. On account of these many divisions,^ 
the strongest societies—the Neederlandsch Zend- 
eling Genootschap (Rotterdam), the Utrechtsche 
Zendingsvereeniging, the Neederlandsch Zend- 
ingsvereeniging (Rotterdam)—have only sixteen, 
eleven, and eight missionaries respectively, and the 
others still fewer. How united France and Nor¬ 
way, each with their concentrated missionary activ¬ 
ity, appear in contrast! The one Paris missionary 
society, with receipts amounting to two hundred 
and thirty thousand francs, shows a missionary 
activity equal at least to that of Holland (four 

1 According to Dutch statistics (1877) the Neederlandsch Zend- 
eling Genootschap (Rotterdam) had 16 missionaries and an income 
of 88,000 florins; the Utrechtsche, 11 missionaries and 72,000 flo¬ 
rins; the Neederlandsch Zendingsvereeniging (Rotterdam), eight 
missionaries and 3,500 florins; Ermelo’s Zendinggenootschap, five 
missionaries and 16,000 florins; Java Comite (Amsterdam), four 
missionaries and 10,000 florins; Zendingsvereeniging of the Menno- 
nites (Amsterdam), three missionaries and 16,000 florins; Needer¬ 
landsch Gereformcerde Zendingsvereeniging (Amsterdam), two 
missionaries and 14,000 florins; Christ. Gereformeerde Kerk, one 
missionary and 10,000 florins; Zeister Hulfsgesellschaft fiir 
Ilerrnhuti 16,000 florins; Rheinische Hulfsmiss. Gesellsch. (Am¬ 
sterdam), 12,000 florins. 


40 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


to five cents per head of the Protestant popula¬ 
tion ; while in Norway, with its much younger 
missionary society, -the general interest is growing 
towards this point. 

II. Looking now inland to Germany and Switzer¬ 
land, we find that here the churches on the whole 
are remarkably behind the humble Dutch in mate¬ 
rial successes, not to mention the English and 
Americans. The German Lutheran Church in the 
last century (^if we include the Moravians, who 
had not really separated in doctrine) surpassed all 
other evangelical churches in foreign and Jewish 
missions, and, although not under colonial obliga¬ 
tions, was the pioneer of the gospel in the East 
and West Indies; but within the last eighty years 
she has been outstripped in spreading the gospel 
by her Peformed sisters, and has been roused again 
to new missionary activity, within the last ten years, 
by those lands to which once she set the example 
in mission work, namely, England and Holland. 

If now from among the German missionary 
societies we take the strictly Lutheran (the Berlin, 
South African, Gossner, Leipzig, Hermannsburg, 
the Society of Brethren in Schleswig-Holstein, 
having as yet no special field of labor), and add 
to these the five northern societies (in Denmark 
one, in Norway one, two in Sweden, and one in 
Finland, the Norwegian society being nearly equal 
in size to the other four), with the mission society 
\ Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 302. 


MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 


41 


of the Lutheran Synod of the United States, it 
is a remarkable fact that to-day there are only 
eleven Lutheran missionary societies, half of which 
are very small, and none of which belong to the 
greatest, having altogether only about two hundred 
ordained missionaries. Against these there are 
fifty-five Reformed societies (including the English 
Episcopal), with two thousand ordained mission¬ 
aries ; while four more evangelical societies, — the 
Moravian (which, on account of her auxiliary 
societies in Holland, England, and the United 
States, one may reckon with the United Evangel¬ 
ical), the Easier, Barmen, and Bremen, — having 
three hundred and fifty' missionaries, hold the 
middle ground between the other two; so that 
to-day all the Lutheran missionary societies of tlie 
world together, in number of workers (two hun¬ 
dred and seven), do not equal the Church Mission¬ 
ary Society; and, in contributions, not the third 
part (about 1,200,000 Marks to 4,000,000 M. or 
£190,000). 

Yes, if we take all the German missionary 
societies, — Lutheran and Evangelical, — together 
with the Bgsler and New Swiss Mission of the 
Free Church in the Canton de Yaud, we see that 
in the number of workers (about five hundred and 
thirty male missionaries) and whole amount of con¬ 
tribution we do not yet equal apy one of the great 

1 See Statistics, e.g., in the Aligemeine Missions Zeitscbrift, 
November, 1875, p. 511. 


42 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


English missionary societies,—the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society, the Propagation Society, and the 
Wesleyan, — for each one of these receives annu¬ 
ally from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 Marks, whilst our 
entire revenue for 1876 was but 2,300,000 Marks; 
and in 1877, on account of the general distress in 
business, it fell off 40,000 ! H 

I refrain from any thing but a passing notice of I 
the causes of the lack of interest by the Lutheran 
Church in missions. It is doubtless owing partly I 
to her contemplative character; she considers the¬ 
ology and science subjectively, rejoices in the pos¬ 
session of “pure doctrine ” ^ and the discussion -of 
it, while its practical application in the organiza¬ 
tion of independent parishes,^ and the like, she has 
neglected. I do not forget, in thus preaching from 
figures, that our land is not so rich as Holland, 
England, or America. But the words I once heard 
from a foreigner in regard to the Germans in their 
ecclesiastical and missionary efforts often return 
to my mind : “ A German always needs a threefold 
conversion: (1) of the heart, like everybody else; 
(2) of the head, for his is particularly full of all 
sorts of doubts ; (3) of the purse ! ” Not that we 
Germans are by nature less liberal than others, or 
our money-bags provided with specially strong 
strings. Contributions for tlie relief of any special 

• 

1 See Allgemeine Miss. Zeitsclirift, April, 1870, 55, sqq. 

2 See Cliristlieb, Missioiisberuf des evaiipjeliscbcn Deiitscb- 
lauds, 187G, p, 55, sqq. 


MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 


43 


need are given as freely by us as by any one else; 
but, in most of the lands and provinces of the 
state Church, the members have not been trained 
to give for purely church purposes: hence the 
regular collection of money, though in small sums, 
from those of slender means, which has been sys¬ 
tematically carried on elsewhere with such great 
success, owing to a wide-spread fear of mechanical 
Christianity and Methodism has unfortunately 
found little favor among us. The same is true of 
the salutary self-discipline of the voluntary but 
regular consecration of a definite per cent, of 
our incomes at the very time of reception for 
Christian objects, in which, I have reason to 
believe, lies technically the secret of the greater 
liberality in the lands of English-speaking peo- 
ples.i 

There is no other Protestant land in which the 
interest in missions is so unequally divided in 
districts as in Germany. For the most part, 
the backward districts (especially in Central Ger¬ 
many) are those in which the evil effects of the 
old rationalism are most sensibly felt. The mis¬ 
sionary spirit breaks forth with greater strength 
in certain out-and-out Lutheran sections, such as 
Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein ; much weaker in 
Mecklenburg, East Prussia, and Saxony. Far. in 
advance of all, however, stan^ the partly mild 

1 See Christlieb, Missionsberuf, pp. 78, 79; and Warneck, 
Belebung des Missionssiunes, p. 75, sqq. 


44 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


Lutheran, partly United Evangelical districts, such 
as Wlirteinberg, Rheinland, Westphalia (especially 
the Siegen and Ravensburg districts). Hence the | 
following remarkable scale : In Wlirteinberg there 
is contributed for missions, per head, for the Prot-, 
estant population, five to six cents; in Rheinland"^ 
and Westphalia, about four cents; in Bremen, 
eleven cents; in Hamburg, Hanover, Oldenburg,! 
Schleswig-Holstein, and Baden, two cents; in the 
six eastern provinces of Prussia, and in Bavaria, one 


and a quarter cents; in iMecklenburg and Saxony 


(kingdom), only about one-half cent. Often the 
same variation is seen in one and the same prov¬ 
ince: in Hanover, for example, in the dukedom 
Osnabriick, with an annual contribution of twenty- 
eight thousand dollars, there are two and three- | 
quarters cents per head for the population, whilst ' 
in the Gottingen dukedom there is but a third of 
a cent. In Rheinland, from 1877 to 1878, for the-* 
synod of Gladbach, five to six cents; for Elber- 1 
feld-Barmen, four and a half to five cents; in 
Aix-la-Chapelle, only three-quarters to one cent; 
in Braunfels, only one-quarter cent; and in certain 
others even less.^ All in all, we receive on an 
average, from the whole Protestant population of 
Germany and Switzerland, only from one and three- 
quarters to two cents per head, and so do not reach 

1 See Warneck, as above, p. 21, sqq. Allgem. evaiig. Lutli. 
Kirchenzeitimg, June 13, 1879, p. 5M, sqq.; and the tables in the 
treatise. Die rheinische Mission im Sommer, 1879, p. 14. 





MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 


45 


the figures of the Lutheran Church in Norway with 
two to two and a half cents. 

But where is there a. land in which the mission 
cause has always had to cope with so many ob¬ 
stinate prejudices, in openly-expressed opinions, 
especially of the educated; with so many calum¬ 
niations from the popular press; with so much 
ignorance, and therefore light esteem of the influen¬ 
tial? wdiere a Jewish member of the Reichstag, not 
long ago, in a debate on a treaty with the Samoan 
Islands, could remark, to the pleasure of that high 
assembly, “ that the memorial of the government 
treated the subject of missions wdth humor ” ? ^ 

I have spoken personally with professors of dif¬ 
ferent universities, wdio had heard next to nothing 
about missions, and who wondered greatly to hear 
me say that they were to-day growing and had 
martyrs ! I have heard a learned Catholic profess¬ 
or repeat, as an incontestable fact, that old report, 
happily long ago made mythical, about the fruit¬ 
lessness of Protestant missions. Therefore, what 
may we not expect from ignorant, anti-Christian 
editors ? The many and great hinderances to the 
spirit of missionary activity among us have often 
been exposed,^ during the past few years. I will 

1 Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, August, 1879, p. 384. The 
luestion is often put. Why has Germany as yet no colonies ? 
3ne providential reason, doubtless, is this: that in influential cir- 
fles great prejudices still exist against missions, and that the 
Hermans have so few Christian officials for the administration of 
mlonies 

2 Christlieb, Missionsberuf, p. 54, sqq.; Warneck, “Belebung 
les Missionssinnes,” p. 37, sqq. 


46 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


not repeat tliem here. But I wish to emphasize 
the shameful fact, that at present the most out¬ 
spoken and growing political, liberal press of Ger¬ 
many, is under the direct influence of reformed 
Jews, the bitterest of all the enemies of Christian 
missions; and I ask, can we expect a fair treat¬ 
ment of missions, more respect toward this great 
factor in the church history of the present, greater 
recognition of the literary achievements of evan¬ 
gelical missions among our learned men, as long 
as we do not seek to emancipate them from the 
influences of this Jewish spirit, and have not the 
courage to enjoin upon our friends and relatives to 
take only those papers and periodicals which treat 
our Christian endeavors with respect, or at least 
with decency? On the other hand, there are 
many cheering signs of a growing interest in mis¬ 
sions among us. The position of the Church 
towards missions grows more q^nd more favorable. 
Among the middle classes, for instance, in the 
country, the missionary cause is becoming increas¬ 
ingly popular in thousands of places. It can de¬ 
pend upon this in the future. The instinct of the 
Christian people in the country gives a deeper in¬ 
sight into spiritual things than the arrogance of 
learning in the cities. The interest grows espe¬ 
cially in the East, while in the West it scarcely 
holds its own. The Berlin China Missionary So¬ 
ciety, which a few years ago was united with that 
of Barmen, has recently been making energetic 
efforts toward revival. 


MISSIONAEY SOCIETIES. ' 47 

The notes of praise from certain celebrated in¬ 
vestigators, such as Max Miiller and indeed Dar¬ 
win,^ and also from certain colonial governments, 
recognizing the services of missionaries, have not 
sounded in vain. Here and there, large and 
formerly wholly indifferent political daily papers 
(e.g., the Cologne and Magdeburg journals) open 
their columns to the opinions of competent 
friends of missions. Lectures on the history 
. of missions are being introduced, though with 
difficulty, here and there in the universities. 
Above all, the commercial advantages of missions 
for the extension of trade are recogni:^ed, and 
writers on political economy begin to speak of 
their world-wide value.^ It has been calculated, 
for example, that every missionary in the Soutli 
Seas creates, on an average, a trade of fifty 
thousand dollars^ per year. It is therefore ob¬ 
vious that the reproach of the unproductive¬ 
ness of the money spent on missions is refuted 
from a purely commercial point of view, by 
the gains in traffic. Certain districts, where the 
interest in missions and spiritual things generally 
had somewhat died out, are stirring themselves to 
new zeal. In March of this year, at Halle, — the 

I 

: 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1875, p. 98; 187G, p. 146, 

: sqq., 326, sqq. ; 1877, p. 52, sqq. 

' 2 g 00 'VVarneck, Die gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen der 

modernen Mission und der Cultur, 1879, p. 42, sqq. 

3 According to tlie Bev. Mr. Whitmee, formerly missionary to 
Samoa. 



48 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


original seat of German missionary efforts, — there 
was a missionary conference of ministers, theologi¬ 
cal professors, and laymen, to increase the interest 
in missions in the province of Saxony; whilst the 
synod put into the orders of the day, as one of the 
subjects for discussion, “ The Duty of the Church 
witli Regard to Foreign Missions: ” examples wor¬ 
thy of imitation. 

And 3 mt a day at the Alliance, where we as 
rarely elsewhere see eye to eye the position of 
German Protestantism in missionary matters, re¬ 
minded ns of much neglect and deeply shamed 
ns. How few professors, even of theology, have 
the courage to hear the reproach which is attached 
to this work, especially high up on the cold heights 
of science; and for the sake of the Lord Jesus 
Christ and his holy gospel, to set at defiance, if 
need be, a whole unbelieving world! How many 
carry themselves cold in their hearts towards him, 
holding him in noticeable light esteem, not con¬ 
sidering what an influence this work of vin¬ 
dicating our world-conquering faith will have, 
even upon the management of many of the depart¬ 
ments of theology, yea, in part, already has to- 
da}"! No wonder that a candidate hardly ever 
comes from the German universities into the 
service of missions, while America from the first 
has taken hundreds of her best missionaries from 
an “ alma maters No wonder that the small 
German student missionary societies, kept at a dis- 


CANDIDATES FOR THE ]N[TSS10N WORK. 40 


tance, cannot stand comparison with the large 
academical missionary societies in Scotland, in 
Oxford and Cambridge, and in the United States. 
And how inactive a large part of onr ministers 
show themselves ! Whence the great difference of 
interest in missions, often in one and the same 
province? I answer, chiefly from the difference of 
the position taken by the clergy in this matter. 
As they are in deeds of love, so are their congre¬ 
gations. If the shepherd himself docs not live in 
the present history of missions, if he robs himself 
of this great faith-strengthening, spiritual refresh¬ 
ment, and upon his lonely watch does not pause 
and listen to the strokes of the distant hammer in 
the building-up of God’s kingdom; if he only 
glances rapidly through the mission reports, to see 
if he can get material for the missionary meeting, 
and if these meetings are more a burden to him 
than a real delight, a matter of the heart, — and 
the congregation has a fine discernment for this 
difference, — if he cares simply for the work of 
home missions, because this finds greater favor 
with the lukewarm part of the congregation; if 
he preaches only on missions in Epiphany, without 
noticing them in his other Sunday sermons, though, 
missionary thoughts run through the whole New 
Testament; if he expects to maintain the right 
degree of missionary interest in his congregation 
by an official report which few read, or by the 
missionary anniversary which is celebrated now 


50 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


and then by the church, — it will become more and 
more difficult for him to hold the interest gained, 
not to speak of helping the development to keep 
pace with the needs of the society to which his 
conc^rescation belongs. Then circumstances like 
those of to-day follow: the work extends, the 
wants and demands of the societies increase, but 
their receipts barely keep up to the old standard, 
nay, here and there diminish, and the deficits be¬ 
come permanent. Of course, most of the exten¬ 
sive development of the missionary spirit depends 
upon the position taken by the minister himself. 
He can also make good, many of the opportuni¬ 
ties neglected while in the university. But it 
is not rio^ht that the cono'reolations should ex- 
■ pect from the missionary societies, the awakening 
and nourishment of their interest in matters per¬ 
taining to the kingdom of God. This is, and will 
remain substantially, the task of the home church 
itself and her ministers. 

We should free the societies from this matter, 
that they may, so much the more, turn all their 
tim-e and strength to the work among the heathen. 
To be sure, the state of the case at home, as 
regards morality, is crying enough: therefore all 
respect to the home mission, and to all zeal for 
the fulfilment of her growing task I But is it not 
a sign of weakness in the Church, when she 
studies only her own wants ? ^ Does not the re- 

1 See the excellent remarks on this subject, by Dr. Thomson, 
at the Mildraay Missionary Conference, Proceedings, p. 103. 


INTEREST IN THE HOME CHURCHES. 51 


fusal of all co-operation abroad work back upon 
the Church, like mildew? Must not the word of 
life, from its very nature, run and extend itself? 
You cannot gather the waters in heaps unless you 
let them freeze ! The more we spread religion 
abroad, so much the more have we remaininof, and 
so much the more richly does it flow back. This 
is equally true of the flnancial part. No one has 
yet bled to death in giving to missions. And if 
any one believes that that instrument, unpleasant 
to so many, the “ missionary-contribution screw,” 
cannot bear one turn more, let me remind him 
kindly, that in Rhineland, for example, during the 
carnival, more is spent in a few days for pieces of 
foolery, than is contributed during the whole year 
for the cause of missions, Protestant and Catholic ; 
and that England spends annually over seventy 
million pounds ^ for intoxicating drinks, and not 
one million pounds for foreign missions. 

No: money is not lacking, but understanding 
and love for this work. If our educated and well- 
to-do people were all friends of missions, the aid¬ 
ing power of the home church would increase ten¬ 
fold. Therefore let us go forward courageously 
with our endeavors to awaken interest at all times 
amonc: the rich and learned; to show to students 
of languages, geographers and historians, that the 
earth cannot be won scientifically without Chris- 

1 According to Dr. Angus (New-York Alliance, p. 585), 
£75,000,000 annually. 


52 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


tian missions; and to make them understand that 
if not actuated by Christian belief, their own 
scientific interest, their desire after new material 
for work, should teach them the inestimable worth 
of missions, and that they should assist in this 
great work if for no other reason than a simple 
expression of gratitude d 

Something, at least, may be accomplished here 
and there in these districts to increase the interest 
in mission-work; though not very much, as past 
experience shows. Therefore, if I were to make 
practical these remarks on the home Church, I 
should say: — 

1. Missions should be a subject understood by 
the whole congregation, as it has long been, for 
example, in the different churches of the United 
States,^ and in free churches elsewhere. But one 
must not expect, for instance, that in a large na¬ 
tional church all, including mere nominal Chris- 

1 Of course, we do not thus wish to “ beg for indemnity for 
missions among men of letters” (see Warneck, Mission and 
Culture, p. 11, sqq.). The one aim of missions is and ever will 
remain the saving of the lost and giving happiness to man, not 
the promotion of culture as such. But, as the latter is the natural 
consequence of the former, every friend of culture should like¬ 
wise he a friend of missions. 

2 “ Missions are carried on in America hy the churches them¬ 
selves as a regular church work, instead of being left to volun¬ 
tary societies, as in the national churches of Europe. Each 
pastor and each congregation is supposed to be interested in 
the spread of the gospel at home and abroad, and to contribute 
towards it according to their ability.” — Dr. Schaff: ChTistianity 
in the United States, p. 49. 


INTEREST IN THE HOME CHURCHES. 53 


tians, should have a clear understanding and real 
interest for the cause. These depend upon the 
personal belief in the world-subduing power of 
the gospel, upon faith in the promises of the 
Bible, upon love to the Saviour of sinners, and 
thankfulness for self-experienced grace. He who 
does not stand upon this Christian basis is more 
an object than a subject of missions. The real 
self-sacrificing advocate of missions is therefore 
not our mixed church, “ talis qualis,'' worldly- 
minded as she is, but the “ communio sanctorum 
et vere credentiumr Not the world, but the true 
believers in the Church, must carry on missions; 
and whoever will heartily aid and strengthen her 
work of love must first unite himself to her inner 
life of faith. If we omit this, we are without the 
real well-spring, the fundamental condition, of all 
successful missionary effort. 

2. The spirit of missions should be much more 
widely spread in our universities, especially among 
the theological students, who in the all-too-short 
time for study, have great hinderances in this 
direction. Missions and their present history 
claim more regard from our theological professors, 
not only in practical theology, where this usually 
begins, but also in history and exegesis (e.g., 
in expounding the Acts, Pastoral Epistles, and 
Prophets). 

3. INIissions should have a larger place in the 
Sunday sermon and the general religious training. 


5 i PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 

in order that the idea of missions may become an 
integral factor in the consciousness of the Chris¬ 
tian Church, and not, as is so often the case, simply 
come to light, almost isolated, at the missionar}^ 
anniversary. “ The preaching of the kingdom,” 
taking that word in the biblical sense, without 
the modern flavor, “ must heighten interest in that 
kingdom, which should in turn be kept alive and 
increased by intelligence as to how the kingdom 
prospers.” Where the ministers of the Word 
recognize this duty, and fulfil it with freshness 
and vigor, there will not be wanting, in those con¬ 
gregations, persons who would put new life into 
the many crippled auxiliary missionary societies. 
The rules of the church ought to establish, that, at 
least once a year, there shall be in every church a 
mission sermon and collection.^ 

4. In certain parts of Germany, a greater con¬ 
centration of aid for a special society is desirable. 
Here and there a society has not come up to a 
lively missionary activity, because something is 
done by the churches in many directions, but in 
'110 one direction is any thing important accom¬ 
plished. Divisions hinder the growth of a deep 
interest in missions. Large-heartedness is also to 
be recommended to some, who are much too ex¬ 
clusive ; but it is a fact, that the congregations 

1 At the first regular General Synod at Berlin (for the old 
Prussian provinces), a motion referring to this subject was all hut 
unanimously adopted, October, 1879. 


CIRCULATION OF MISSIONARY LITERATURE. 55 


most zealous for home and foreign missions al¬ 
ways turn their chief interest toward one special 
society. 

5. Besides the greater circulation of missionary 
papers (in Germany subscribers are counted by 
thousands, in America by tens of thousands^), it 
assists much to the promotion of a missionary 
spirit when particular congregations, having 
wealth, take upon th^m the support of a mission- 
. ary, or of a whole station, which is already here 
and there‘the case: A little more voluntary per¬ 
sonal effort by believers would make this pos¬ 
sible in many places. Let me call your attention 
to the fact, that many of the United Scotch Pres¬ 
byterian Churches, in spite of their relative poverty, 
have developed such an interest in missions, that 
for the past fifty years the support of almost all 
their West-Indian missionaries has been laid upon 
particular churches ^ and their special funds. 
Their strong general love for missions depends, 
without doubt, upon this practice.. It is also most 
praiseworthy when a rich friend of missions bears 
. alone the expense of the education of a mission¬ 
ary, as a Hollander did for a Barmen student not 
long ago. This would soon set aside the deficits 
and all need of retrenchment in the field, although 
the societies which are supported by a large num- 

1 See McKerrow, History of the Foreign :^Iissions of the 
Secession and United Presbyterian Church. Edinburgh, 1867, 
pp. 246, 265, 271, 274, &c. 


56 


PROTESTAXT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


ber of small contributions are upon a firmer foun¬ 
dation than those that depend on large bequests 
of individual wealthy men. 

s we go to the technical 
management of the missionary agencies at home, 
it is high time that certain missionary circles, 
which hold on with great tenacity, should learn 
the fallacy of the old idea that every pious, really 
converted young man, no matter how untalented, 
can be used m the mission-service. This error, 
against which I recommend as a powerful eye- 
salve the perusal of Livingstone's ‘‘Missionary Sac¬ 
rifices, lately published^ has often proved a mis¬ 
fortune and great evil for missions, which demand 
the very best talent and education the Chiastian 
world can give. 


If Me turn now from our churches to the 
missionary societies, we see that the period for 
founding new societies is not yet past. In Eng¬ 
land, in I 860 , were added the Cliina Inland mission 
of Mr. Hudson Taylor, wliich has already fortv- 
nine male European missionaries; 2 hi 1870 the 
East London Institute for Home and Foreign 
Missions (similar to the St. Chrishona Institute) 


1 See Catholic Presbyterian, No. 1, 1870: Ein Termaehtniss 

BdwSn.'oG, Zeitschrift, April,‘ISTO, 

2 See China’s Millions, August, 1879; added to this twenty 

females, forty-eight native pastors and evangelists, thirty-seven 
teachers, colportors, &c. ^ 


GENEHAL ERIXCIPLES OF WORK. 


57 


by INIr. Grattan Guinness, which recently started 
a Congo mission in West Africa, and other new 
efforts in missions at Cambridge and Oxford ^ 
since 1877; in America the heathen missions of 
the “ Evangelical Society; ” in SAvitzerland the 
missions of the Free Church of Vaud; in Ger¬ 
many the “ Brecklumer Missions-Anstalt.” Al- 
though this is in one respect to be rejoiced at, 
it is most of all desirable, that the missionary 
strength should not be further subdivided, a re¬ 
mark especially applicable to the present critical 
condition of Hanoverian missions. 

The smaller a society, the more expensive, for the 
most part, is her work. Why ncAV societies, when 
the old ones have difficulty in carrying on their 
work? Not in Christian, but in Christianized 
heathen lands, new missionary societies should be 
founded. If Ave look at the great societies of the 
Old and NeAv World, Ave shall see a manifold dif¬ 
ference in organization, according to the character 
of the churches in the various lands. Hoav varied 
even is the training of the missionaries! 

The great American societies—i.e., the American 
Board, Avith one hundred and forty-four ordained 
missionaries; 2 the Baptist Missionary Union of 
Boston, Avith one hundred and forty-one mission¬ 
aries in Asiatic landsthe Presbyterian Mission- 

1 See further particulars, Evangelical Missionary Magazine, 
July, 1878, p. 257, sqq. 

2 See Annual Report of 1878, p. 112. 

^ See the Missionary Herald, August, 1879, p. 308. 


58 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


ary Society of New York, with one hundred and 
twenty-two ordained missionaries;^ the Methodist 
Episcopal, with one hundred and eighty-four 
missionaries,^ and others — all draw their mission¬ 
aries from the universities, colleges, and theolo¬ 
gical seminaries of their resj^ective denominations. 
And the same with the churches of Scotland. 

In Germany, on the other hand, we educate them 
in special seminaries, and must do it, since the uni¬ 
versities rarely furnish a man for missions, much 
less now that the number of theological students 
barely meets the requirements of the home Church; 
whilst the Anglican Church, besides those from the 
semmaries, takes a large number of workers from 
the universities. This is a characteristic and very 
perceptible difference. In the free churches, the 
theological faculties are united. There, believing 
men work together for the upbuilding of their 
churches, and not especially for the improvement of 
different branches of theological learning. There, 
the students grow up in the universities in the 

1 See Annual Report, 1879, p. 83. 

2 This includes the missionaries among other denominations 
in Christian countries (Europe and South America), altogether 
one hundred and fourteen, but not the forty-two assistants”of the 
missionaries, leaving eighty missionaries among the heathen. 
(See Missionary Herald, June, 1879, p. 229.) The Christliche 
Apologete, June 2, 18 <9, gives the number of missionaries as two 
hundred and fiftj-six; the Annual Report of the Missionary 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1879, p. 198, 
mentions ninety-five foreign missionaries, fifty-seven assistants' 
thirty-two missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
Society. 


GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WORK. 


59 


spirit and faith of their churches, and so without 
difficulty give themselves to be employed in the 
work of their church, even in partihu8 infidelium. 
But in Germany? The combination of the facul¬ 
ties from men of all kinds of theological tendencies 
often makes students unfriendly even to God’s ser¬ 
vice in the home churches. Pulled hither and 
thither, between the opposing views of his various 
teachers, the unfortunate student often has trouble 
enough to retain the simplest rudiments of his belief, 
and cannot easily force himself up to the inspiration 
j of that faith which overcomes the world, or be 
ready to make every necessary sacrifice to defend it, 
— this first requisite of the true missionary spirit. 

I The independence of a missionary, the right to 
do as he sees fit, or his being bound to act only 
according to given orders, depends largely on 
whether the management of the society be a pure¬ 
ly administrative body, or one which also gives 
theological instruction. 

The one who educates the missionary will after¬ 
wards arbitrarily desire to keep a strict watch over 
him. The societies Avhich are the most opposite in 
this respect are, on the one hand, the American 
' Board and the London Church Missionary Society, 
j with their open-hearted freedom; and, on tlie other, 
i the Basel Society, with her precise regulations even 
i to the details of work in every station. With 
' them, self-government — with tliis, strict centrali- 
. zation. Many of the American missionaries could 




60 


PEOTESTAXT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


not long endure the discipline of our Basel friends, 
whilst of course some of the Basel missionaries 
would grow rather wild with the freedom of the 
Americans. 

I wish here, however, to warn against one-sided 
criticisms. Xational peculiarities and ecclesiasti¬ 
cal 'vdews and customs are too diverse to lay down 
any general rules and principles for all. But ex¬ 
perience may teach us this much: that where the 
object is not merely the conversion of individuals, 
but also the formation of churches and spread of 
missionary activity, too much should not be left to 
the missionarv himself.^ 

On the other hand, when the home manaelement 
dictates all, even to the smallest details, this is not 
only a sign of the incapacity of the workers, but it 
mav easdv become a hea^w shackle, hindering the 
work abroad, and proving a burden to the man¬ 
agement at home, and therefore in either case a 
great evil. 

So. according to_the old maxim. medio tidissi- 
mus ibis." most of the societies seek to keep a safe 
middle course, between ii'ksome laws and too great 
libertv.- 

^ O- strict principles of Dr. Graul, Nachrichten der Os- 
tind. ^lissions-Anstalt zu Halle, 1869, p. 133. 

- It is worthy of notice, that some societies place their mis¬ 
sionaries directly and entirely under the supervision of the com¬ 
mittee at home (e.g., the Baptist Society of Boston), whilst most 
of the others appoint the missionaries of one particular district, 
to exercise an intermediate authority over each missionary, — a 
system which has proved to be a very good one. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WORK. 


G1 


If I throw ill here a word upon the differences 
in the running expenses of societies and the sala¬ 
ries of missionaries, I can with a good conscience 
hold up, as an example in point of economy, our 
own German societies. A comparison of the Basel 
report for her missions on the Gold Coast in 
Africa, with that of the Wesleyans, who are her 
neighbors in the same field, or that of the Barmen 
and Berlin societies for South Africa, with those 
of the English societies working there, shows clear¬ 
ly that the German societies work more cheaply 
than either English or American, and with the 
same sum can support almost twice as many Euro¬ 
pean workers, because their pay is scarcely one- 
half that of the English. Only the Roman-Cath¬ 
olic missionaries, who are unmarried, are satisfied 
with the same scanty support.^ But I wish here 
to warn you, that one may carry economy too 
far, to the cost of joy in tire work and the 
health of our missionaries, who already have 
been obliged in many cases to endure what 
was almost unendurable.^ We should seek here 
also, in the circumstances of heathen lands,® the 
right medium between too broad liberality and 
too narrow economy. 

1 Monier Williams (Modern India and the Indians, 1879) 
says of them, “ they are content with wonderfully small pay.” 

2 Cf., e.g., the remarks of Dr. Wangemann at the Mildmay 
Conference, Proceedings, 1878, p. 50. 

3 An absolute equalization of the salaries, as, e.g., introduced 
by the American Baptist Missionary Union (Si,000), can only be 
recommended where there is complete similarity in all outward 
circumstances. 


62 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


Although our GermaYi missions have little that 
is inviting in the foreign field, this fact is worthy 
of notice: that the press of young men into 
our mission-seminaries is always large enough 
to admit the making of a fine selection. Within 
the last twenty years (not to speak of earlier 
times), they have often been obliged, in Eng¬ 
land, to complain of the need of workers, whilst 
Germany could often help out other societies. 
If they need men for the holy war, we need 
money to send out men, ready and well equipped, 
let the choice cannot be made with too great 
care. In a number of missions, the incontestable 
result of experience — which the present finan¬ 
cial troubles place in an especially sharp light 
— is, that it is better to have few but capable 
missionaries, than many incapable. The zenana- 
missions in India confirm this also. 

• I ''Till not here touch on the many old and- 
new ideas concerning different methods of educat¬ 
ing our missionaries, which relate to the first prin¬ 
ciples of nianagement and their comprehension of 
the task before them. 

Among those who are themselves engaged in 
the work, who know the real condition of affairs 
in heathen lands, and who do not simply devise 
uew plans and methods in their studies, there is 
fortunately, upon all essential points both at home 
and abroad, an encouraging unity of opinion. I 


GEXEr.AL PEIXCIPLES OF WOEK. 


63 


may, for example, state the fact that the important 
question as to whether the object of a mission 
should be simply the conversion of individuals, or 
the Christianization of whole nations,^ will be, nay, 
is already, clearly decided from the practice and 
experience of almost all the present societies, as 
well as in the history of missions during the first 
centuiy. It is not a question here as to this or 
that, but as to one after the other. According to 
. the apostolic example, the whole spirit and char¬ 
acter of a people brought under Christian influ¬ 
ence must be cleansed, renewed, and fructified, 
through the conversion of one individual after 
another, if the leavening power of the gospel is to 
permeate public and social life. But for this pro¬ 
cess, the only sure and solid basis lies in the for¬ 
mation of individual churches of believers, as 
centres of new light and life from God, as foun¬ 
tain-heads, “well-rooms” {BemjeV) of regenerat¬ 
ing power for the whole people.^ There is, more¬ 
over on the right and left no want of new 
proposals for the adoption of other methods. 

For one critic, the present system is not simple, 
biblical, and apostolic enough: for another it is 

1 Cf. Graul, p. 129. 

2 Cf. the principles of the Chnrch Missionary Society: A Brief 
View of the Principles and Proceedings of the Church Missionary 
Society, 1877, p. 19 : “ All its evangelistic efforts are to aim, first, 
at the conversion of individual souls, and secondly, though con- 
temiwraneously, at the organization of the permanent native 
Christian Church, self-supporting, self-governing, self-extend¬ 
ing.” 



64 


PPwOTESTAXT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


too biblical, too entirely of faith. The former class 
of objections comes especially from England and 
America.^ The missionaries, they say, should sup¬ 
port themselves, or be supported by the people with 
whom they labor, like Paul. This is all very 
beautiful and heroic, where it is practicable: but 
he who would make it a general rule must not 
forget that apostolic missionary methods presup¬ 
pose: (1) apostolic men; and (2) apostolic con¬ 
ditions. When a Paul preached in a civilized land 
in which he was born and of which he was a 
citizen ; when he preached to people whose lan¬ 
guage he by nature understood, whose social con¬ 
ditions made it possible for him to support himself 
by his handiwork in every large city, without 
consuming too much of his time, — these were other 
conditions than those of the missionarv of to-dav. 
The latter is not an apostle in strength and gifts. 
He goes to distant nations, be they entirely sav¬ 
age or half civilized, to whom, as a foreigner, 
every thing is closed, language and customs, and 
to whom therefore for a long time the necessary 
occupation is lacking, so that, looking for business 


1 Thus lately William Taylor (American Methodist preacher 
in California, then in Bombay, &c.), in his paper, Pauline Meth¬ 
ods of Missionary Work, 1879. CV. Der christliche Apologete, 
30th of June and 28th of July, 1879. Cf. also Die apostolische 
und die moderne Mission, in the Allgemeine Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 
97, sqq. Cf. there also, 1879, p. 382, other extreme views of mis¬ 
sionary enterprise, taken from the lives of remarkable evangel¬ 
ists earning their own livelihood, &c. 


GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WORK. 65 

and food, his care for souls would entirely cease. 
Certain societies which at first sent out mission¬ 
aries according to this principle were obliged, 
after bitter experiences, taught by the stern 
reality of facts, to give up their stations entirely, 
or restrict them to certain places. 

If we let those of the opposite belief speak, 
especially in Switzerland and Holland, who, on 
the basis of modern critical theology, consider our 
.former missionary education and mode of preach¬ 
ing, with its old biblical and saving doctrines, as 
not adequate for winning the educated classes of 
the heathen world, as for instance the Eastern 
Asiatic nations; they wish to make the few learned 
heathen the subject of missionary labor, and for 
this purpose found a new missionary society on the 
basis of free thought,^ whose messengers, clothed 
in the full armor of the modern many-sided Chris¬ 
tian intellectual culture, shall turn immediately 
to the leading minds of the civilized heathen 
nations, to the circles of the learned and influen¬ 
tial, and thus “ from above downwards ” gain con¬ 
trol of the whole spirit of the nation; for, “ if the 
head were once won, the body of the nation would 
submit itself the more quickly to Christian cul¬ 
ture.” Such suggestions as these awaken some- 

^ Cf. as to what follows Buss, Die christliche Mission ihre 
principielle Berechtigung und praktische Durchfiihrung, Leyden, 
187G; as also the incisive criticism of his paper in the Allgemeine 
Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 371, sqq., 416, sqq., and the Evang. 
Miss. Magazin, 1876, p. 258, sqq. 


66 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


what mixed feelings among the friends of missions. 
Who does not rejoice that at last the significance, 
justice, yea, the necessity, of missionary work, is 
beginning to break its way even into the circles of 
“ liberal ” theologians ? Who would close his ears 
to a criticism so penetrating yet so earnest, so 
zealous and well-meant, and not willingly submit 
present systems to a renewed examination ? 

But it is otherwise when we, as biblical theolo¬ 
gians, Christians as well as missionary historians, 
must consider these propositions, at least for the 
time when a mission is founded, as wrong in prin¬ 
ciple, as promising no real fruit, yea, as wholly 
impracticable. We will not discuss here the fun-, 
damental difference with regard to our conception 
of the cardinal points of Christianity. But if 
these men propose to come to the help of our old 
faith with a modern science, and, by volatilizing 
the great facts of redemption, make it able to cope 
with heathen culture, we hold, without in the least 
undervaluing an intellectual Christian training for 
the mission work, that to give up the historical 
basis of the biblical doctrine of salvation is to 
diminish and weaken the force of the gospel to 
produce true moral and spiritual results, and 
to dry up the inmost spring of its divine, regener¬ 
ating power, and that all belief in the omnipotence 
of education and culture in itself, in respect to 
the moral reformation of the life of the people, is 
but the superstition and fundamental error of the 


CULTURE NOT SUFFICIENT TO MEET NEEDS. 67 

present day. That which pleases the spirit of 
the age will not on that account overcome the 
world, but only that which heals her deepest 
wounds by imparting new, not humanly-devised, 
but God-given, spiritual life and pownr. 

13ut, from the historian’s point of view, it is 
permitted me to ask in regard to these new mis¬ 
sion plans, is it not remarkable, that, since the 
knowledge of the last, most noted aud friendly 
of those various voices (Buss) declaring the un¬ 
fruitfulness of our method of missions, the land 
in India, China, and Japan is being rapidly con¬ 
quered ? Fifty to sixty thousand heathen brought 
under Christian training in India during 1878 alone 
ought to modify greatly the statement of barren¬ 
ness in that field. What if these are for the most 
part among the lower classes ? Is it not true in 
all history of old and new missions, that the 
instinct of the common people in accepting the 
gospel is far in advance of the self-complacent 
arrogance of the learned and wise ? How many 
congregations of Christians there were-among the 
common people in Greece, whilst the honorable 
professors of Athens continued to bring the with¬ 
ered leaves of their heathen philosophy and rhetoric 
to market I Precisely in this university of anti¬ 
quity did heathenism maintain itself longest.^ 

1 Cf. Wurin, Die Eintheilung der Religionen in ihrer Bedeu- 
tungfiir den Erfolg der Mission : Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 
1876, p. 535, sqq. 


68 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


And if, notwithstanding the power of the Spirit, 
it cost centuries of their witnessing to bring over, 
little by little, large numbers of the learned to the 
necessity of accepting the new belief, is not the 
time of labor by our missionaries in Eastern Asia 
altogether too short to begin talking of their ina¬ 
bility to win the educated ? Look at the missionary 
attempts of the Jesuits in India, endeavoring to 
get into the ruling Brahmin caste, in order more 
quickly to win the rest of the people; and what 
sad compromises with heathenism and accommo¬ 
dations to its practices these endeavors had as a 
resultd But have we not the warning example 
before us in our own church, that recently a mis¬ 
sionary sent out by the Unitarians to India, instead 
of converting the heathen, was himself converted 
to a heathen sect, — the well-known Brahmo 
Somaj and also that'the whole Danish-Halle mis¬ 
sion in India in the last half of the previous century 
was greatly crippled by the esteem of their leaders 
for purely human learning and enlightenment, to 
whom the preaching of the great truths of sal¬ 
vation seemed worthless ? 

Whether the Dutch mission, which has gone 
over into the hands of “ modern theologians,” will 
fare much better, may be doubted. 

1 Cf. the excellent treatise, Arbeiter in der Tamil-Mission, 
Evangel. Miss. Magazin, 1868: January, p. 31, sqq.; February, 
p. 49, sqq.; March, p. 97, sqq. 

2 Calwer Missionsblatt, June, 1879, p. 41. 


CXJLTUr^E NOT SUFFICIENT TO jNIEET NEEDS. 69 

No! the method of missions, to which all the 
future belongs, though it may not advance as rap¬ 
idly as our impatience could wish, is too clearly 
marked out for us in the Bible and established by 
history. “ The poor have tlie gospel preached to 
them;” “not many wise men after the flesh, not 
many mighty, not many noble, are called; ” “ we 
are made the offscouring of all things ; ” “ account¬ 
ed as sheep for the slaughter: ” this is and will 
remain the rule for preaching the cross, especially 
at the time of founding a church. The offence of 
the cross of Christ among Jews and Greeks is the 
outward mantle of its inner power. Whoever 
shuns the former will lose the latter. We are not, 
so to speak, as in a dress-coat, to move about in. 
the higher circles only, but to be “ all things to all 
men ; ” to the plain, plain; to the learned, learned ; 
so that as far as God gives opportunity we may if 
possible “ save some.” This Pauline missionary 
method must always be our example. The mis¬ 
sion reformers should stop talking, go to deeds, 
and put their plans to the flery test of practice! 
This would be the simplest way to prove the 
worthlessness of our — or rather their — methods. 
We believe that every attempt of this kind must 
soon result in a new confirmation of the essential 
correctness of the present^ methods in mission 
work, which the Lord has recognized by giving 
rich results; yea, that tlie preparation for its exe¬ 
cution, the seeking for men and means, will show, 


70 


PKOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


wliat experience through all ages teaches, that 
only upon the basis of full faith in the gospel will 
self-sacrificing love and self-dedication grow, which 
under God have grown, in a measure, up to the 
tremendous difficulties of the mission work. I 
do not say that our former training for mission 
work cannot be improved in certain respects. The 
voices increase in the evangelical camp, also, of 
those who say to us. We need not only more, 
but especially better-prepared, more finely edu¬ 
cated missionaries, particularly for the civilized 
heathen; men more self-denying, in whose walk 
Christ preaches more powerfully than with their 
lips! 

What earnest appeals in regard to this came 
from the Mildmay Conference in London last au¬ 
tumn ! 1 A Livingstone always demanded more 
talented missionaries, even for Africa, and asked, 
opposing the old idea, why the home ministry 
should be better educated than the missionaries ? 
whether an army on a peace footing must be more 
skilful, and better equipped, than in war?^ In 
fact, we should use only those who will be spiritual 
leaders, not mediocre men, but the very best; who 
are much superior to the home ministry, not onl}^ 

1 By Dr. Legge, Mr. Turner, and others: cf. Proceedings of the 
Conference, pp, 178, 259, &c. 

2 Livingstone’s Missionary Sacrifices: cf. Graul also, in the 
paper above mentioned, pp. 134-147. “ The Church must send her 
ablest, most highly educated, and best men to the heathen, for 
the work in the foreign field is more difficult than at home.” 


CULTURE NOT SUFFICIENT TO MEET NEEDS. 71 


ill faith and self-denial, in courage and gentleness, 
but also in linguistic talents, powers of organiza¬ 
tion and of a many-sided practical aptitude. But 
such men seldom apply, and the societies must be 
satisfied with a selection from those who offer them¬ 
selves. 

It is on this very account, and because our uni¬ 
versities furnish so few men, that the best and 
most comprehensive training possible in our mis¬ 
sion seminaries is indispensable, especially as they 
at present are far from giving the qualities de¬ 
manded. 

In passing, let me remind the missionaries that * 
they themselves have the duty of their further ed¬ 
ucation, particularly in respect to moral and reli¬ 
gious self-training. “If,” an African missionary 
once wrote to me, “the minister who does not 
study, stagnates, much more is this true of the mis¬ 
sionary. If he rests satisfied with what he has at¬ 
tained, he will, in a land where the tendency of 
every thing is to drag him downwards, become 
mentally impoverished, and lose all power of pro¬ 
duction.” How many must confess with noble 
Henry Martyn, that he has “devoted too much 
time to public work, and too little to private com¬ 
munion with God! ” ^ 

1 Sargent’s Life of Henry Martyn, 1855. See also the extracts 
from his diary in Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students; p. 65,1875: 

“ The determination with which I went to bed last night, of devot¬ 
ing this day to prayer and fasting, I was enabled to put into exe¬ 
cution. In my first prayer for deliverance from worldly thoughts, 


72 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


If, for example, on Sunday afternoons, often sur¬ 
rounded by the wild din of the hardened heathen, 
the missionaries feel lonely in their huts, and a deep 
sorrow flows through their souls, oh! that then 
through prayer and meditation on the Scriptures 
they would learn to put on more and more the 
armor of light, and recognize the fact that a man 
who is himself holy, and constantly becoming 
more so, can do more good by his example than in 
any other way! 

The Chinese, even to the present day, speak 
more of a certain William Burns than of any other 
man, because he was in his person a living proof 
of Christianity^ 

But I cannot close this review of the agencies of 
the home churches without asking a very important 
question. Why have we, in the German missions, 
no medical missionaries, or medical missionary so¬ 
cieties, like those of England and America ? 

During the last twenty or thirty years, these have 
proved of inestimable value in aiding the mission 
work. Through these the confidence of the natives 
in civilized lands, as in those of Islam, in India, 
China, Formosa, and Japan, can be more quickly 
won. As long ago as 1841, there was founded 

depending on the power and promises of God for fixing my soul 
while I prayed, I was helped to enjoy much abstinence from the 
world for nearly an hour. . , Afterwards, in prayer for my own 
sanctification, my soul breathed freely and ardently after the 
holiness of God, and this was the best season of the day.” 

1 Cf. Mildmay Conference on Foreign Missions, 1878, p. 259. 


MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 


73 


in Edinburgh a medical missionary society, for 
the education of physicians who at the same time 
are believing evangelists; who serve the poor, in 
body and soul, at home, in the large cities, and the 
heathen abroad; according to the old rule, “ preach¬ 
ing the gospel, and healing, everywhere ’’ (Luke 
ix. 6). After their education is completed, some 
are sent out by the various missionary societies, 
and some directly by the medical missionary 
society itself; as, for instance, the missionary 
physicians employed by the Edinburgh Medi¬ 
cal Missionary Society, in Nazareth, Madras, and 
Japan, in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birming¬ 
ham, Bristol, Manchester, and other cities. The 
practical Americans, especially, are following the 
example of Edinburgh. Of the special quarterly 
periodicals of these societies, I mention particu¬ 
larly “The Quarterly Papers of the Edinburgh 
Medical Missionary Society,” and “ The Medical 
Missions at Home and Abroad,” of the London 
Medical Missionary Association. Also there are 
special prayer-meetings of believing medical men: 
e.g., the Medical Prayer Union in London estab¬ 
lished in 1874, which now numbers two hundred 
and twenty doctors and medical students, and 
meets weekly for prayer and the study of the Bible,^ 

1 These notes are taken from the magazine, Medical Missions 
at Home and Abroad, the quarterly magazine of the Medical 
Missionary Association (London), 18/8, No. 1, p. 2, sq'Q'. , No. 2, 
October, 1878, p. 17, sqq. 



74 


PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


thereby awakening and spreading the interest in 
this mission work. 

There is already upon the staff of workers for 
most of the Scotch, English, and American mis¬ 
sionary societies, a considerable number of doctors 

\ 

of medicine who are at the same time messengers 
of the cross, and have as their first aim the evan¬ 
gelization of the world. There are now between 
ninety and one hundred actively employed in the 
various missions.^ Mission dispensaries and mis¬ 
sion hospitals are everywhere becoming more 
numerous, especially in Asia, throughout Turkey, 
India, China, Formosa, and Japan, breaking the 
way to faith in the gospel of Christian love which 
seeks out and helps the needy. In China alone, 
there are now sixteen missionary hospitals. Ameri¬ 
can professors and doctors of medicine are teaching 
the native youth, Christian and Mohammedan, the 
science of medicine in the Christian liigh schools 
of Turkey, as at Robert College, Constantinople, 
and in the S}uian Protestant College at Beyrout, 
in connection with the American Presbyterian 
mission; and now in England they are calling for 
a female medical mission to meet the crying needs 
of the Hindoo women, especially in the large 


1 Here fourteen British missionary societies are mentioned, 
of which all the Scottish (particularly those of the United Presby¬ 
terian) and all the larger English societies employ medical mis¬ 
sionaries. See Mildmay Conference, p. 77, address by the Rev. 
Dr. Lowe on Medical ^Missions. 


MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 


75 


cities of India.^ Already there has been estab^ 
lished in India itself, in Agra,^ an educational 
institute for medical missionaries; while in other 
cities, as in Bombay, auxiliary branches of medical 
missions support their own physicians. But, not- 
Avithstanding the great deA^elopment and ajDparent 
importance of this branch of missions, we, upon 
the Continent of Europe, have almost nothing of 
the kind: nay, recently the Barmen Missionary 
Society Avas obliged to give up sending a Christian 
physician to China, from Avant of funds! ^ We 
haA^e, indeed, missionaries Avho knoAV a little about 
medicine, and from necessity must; but Avhere do 
we find physicians Avho are at the same time theo¬ 
logians, that is, Avho (although in its inmost nature 
the gospel has much related to the art of healing) 
have the material in them for evangelists ? 

Ah! here lies the deepest cause of this shameful 
lukewarmness. Under the present teaching of 
our medical faculties, no missionary spirit could 
come to the surface without receiving deadly scorn 
from all sides. Among professors and students 
the superstition of the naturalistic theory of the 
world rules supreme, and for them Christianity 

1 Mrs. Weitbrecht, Female Missions in India, and The 
Women of India, 1879. 

2 Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, April, 1879, p. 59; 
The Agra Medical Missionary Training Institute. 

3'Dr. Goeking, who had labored in China in connection with 
the Missionary Society for China, at Berlin: private subscriptions 
had to be collected, in order to send him out again. 


76 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


has ceased to hold a position “ scientifically ten 
able.” They follow Mr. Darwin in every tiling 
sooner than in his sympathy for missions, foi 
which he recently sent the London South Ameri¬ 
can Missionary Society a gift of twenty-five dol¬ 
lars.^ Their candidates state for theses, as one 
did recently in Bonn, “ Belief in the miraculous 
an epidemic insanity ! ” What hope is there from 
this quarter ? And yet our German mission forces 
must soon be strengthened from this side, not only 
on account of the work among the heathen, but 
also on account of our missionaries themselves, 
whose lives may often (humanly speaking) be 
lengthened therebyIf the importance of this 
were once fully realized, by God’s help ways and 
means would soon be devised for its execution; 
and I earnestly beg the friends of missions to con¬ 
sider this. And now, in order that the la'dies 
interested in missions may also have something 
to see in this picture, I would kindly remind you 
of the great aid which your sisters in England and 
America have given to the mission work, not 
simply-by handiwork in sewing-circles, as with us, 
but by founding, long ago, self-supporting mis¬ 
sionary societies for educating and sending out 
women for the mission work. I mention only the 
Society for Promoting Female Education in the 

1 Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, August, 1879. 

2 See, e g., the remarks in The Medical Mssions, 1878, p. 27, 
sqq., on the death of the Basel missionary, Mr. Weigle, in India. 


woman’s work. 


77 


East, founded in 1834, with hundreds of girls’ 
schools in India, China, and Africa, and with their 
own periodical; the Indian Female Normal School 
and Instruction Society (1852), with thirty Euro¬ 
pean missionaries among the zenanas, eighty- 
eight native female helpers, ninety-four schools, 
and twelve hundred and thirty-two zenanas 
opened to their instruction,^ with an excellent 
quarterly (“The Indian Female Evangelist”), 
auxiliary societies throughout England, and an 
annual income of ninety-two thousand five hun¬ 
dred dollars ; the Ladies’ Association for the So¬ 
cial and Religious Elevation of Syrian Women 
(1860) ; the Ladies’ Society for the Education of 
Women in India and South Africa, in connection 
with the missions of the Scottish Free Church; 
and the English Presbyterian Female Missionary 
Society for India and China (1879). To these we 
should add the similar self-supporting and active 
adies’ missionary societies of America. Omitting 
die differences of character between Germans and 
English, we may ask. Could not these societies, in 
whose service there are, so far as I know, onlv a 
iouple of German women, and with whom we can 
ilace only the “ Ladies’ Society for the- Training 
)f Females in the East” (1842), which has up to 
die present sent out fourteen female teachers to 
die East Indian mission,^ and has an orphan school 

1 See Annual Report, April, 1879, p. 7. 

2 See their monthly magazine, Missionsblatt des Frauen- 


78 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


in Secundra; the “ Berlin Ladies’ Society for 
China,” which has established a foundling-honse 
in Hong-Kong; and the work of education carried 
on in the different towns of the East by the dea- 
conesses from Kaiserswerth, — misrlit not these be 
assisted, at least more than heretofore, by compe¬ 
tent teachers from Germany ? 

To be sure, there are whole groups of missionary 
agencies, which haye recently come into operation, 
that greatly supplement those in existence, and 
which should excite our German missionary socie- 
ties to similar zeal. The forces drawing upon the 
great gospel-net become more and more yaried. 
The smallest denominations, as soon as they 

t. 

haye a roof, upon their home church, start for 
the great battle-field, because they know that 
it is in foreign missions that the strength and 
health of their inner life can best be proyen. If 
a church can do nothing for the conquest of the 
world in foreign missions, she will soon beo^in 
to die at home. If as Max Midler confesses,^ 
Christianity be a missionary religion, in its yery 
nature, “conyerting, adyancing, aggressiye, en¬ 
compassing the world,” a church which does no 
mission work shows by this, that it is falling away 

Tereins fiir christliche Bildung des weiblichen Geschlechts in 
Morgenlande, January, 1879, p. IS, sqq. Besides in their school 
at Secundra, the female teachers are employed by English, 
American, and German missionary societies. 

1 On Missions : a lecture delivered in Westminster Abbey, 
1873. 


woman’s wokk. 


TO 


from the great idea and task of Christianity, — 
shows its internal death. 

But notAvithstanding the general activity in this 
work by large and small churches, the farther the 
work extends, the greater are the demands for 
more laborers, ministers, laymen, and physicians, 
and male and female teachers. Therefore ^Ye may 
say briefly in regard to the present condition of 
the missionary societies, that on many sides at 
home there is a growing interest in. missions; on 
the part of others they are held in light esteem. 
Doors are wide open in the heathen world; there 
is a pressing need to spread farther the Avord of 
life ; there are plenty of men ready for the work, 
but not sufficient means to send out a greater 
force.^ This is, on the Avhole, the present condition 
of our missions, and this will demonstrate itself to 
us more clearly in the survey to which Ave now 
pass. 

1 Cf. the reports of the Rheinische Missions Gesellschaft, 
1879, No. vi., p. 186. 


80 


PEOTESTANT EOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


III. 

THE WORK AMONG THE HEATHEN. 

I SHALL now, without going into details in re¬ 
gard to all the mission fields, consider especially 
those which are characteristic of the present 
condition of the missionary work, and so best 
facilitate our glance over the whole subject, and 
lay the basis for a clear judgment in regard to the 
fitness and worth of existing methods. Since it is 
our object to secure the leading points of view, 
rather than entire completeness, the division ac¬ 
cording to great groups distributes itself into : — 

I. V>'ork among non-civilized nations, and,— 

II. Work among civilized nations. 

Keeping separate the different quarters of the 
globe, for the sake of clearness, I shall consider 
first, missions among the still uncivilized peoples 
of the south seas, America and Africa, and then 
those among the civilized races of Asia Minor, 
India, China, and Japan, not separating the coun¬ 
tries wliere both classes are side by side. 

I. AMONG UNCIVILIZED NATIONS. 

I. In Australia the extremely laborious mission- 
ary undertakings among the scattered remnants of 


I AMONG UNCIVILIZED NATIONS. 81 

the natives — the most debased branches of the 
\ human race — have only begun to scatter the dark- 
^ ness of death by the light of the gospel. If the 
immediate extinction of these tribes lias not been 
prevented by the mission, it has at least been some¬ 
what retarded.! Though small, this mission is the 
most powerful proof that infidelity triumiihed too 
soon when it asserted that there were tribes so de¬ 
praved that the calling voice of tlie Good Shep¬ 
herd could have no effect upon them wliatever. 

The iMoravian stations, Ebenezer in the Wim- 
mera district, and Ramahyuk in Gippsland, with 
pleasant villages and neat little churches, clean 
dwellings, and one hundred and twenty-five native 
Christians, whose arrow-root produce won the 
prize medal at the Vienna Exposition ; the missions 
of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, at 
Point Macleay (south of Adelaide), with similar 
results, show what the gospel can do even among 
the Papuans. Here are also the Anglican edu¬ 
cational institutions for native children, and other 
enterprises which have little by little produced a 
colonial mission. This fact is also encourasringr, 
that the children of native Christians are healthier 
and better formed than those of the vacrabond 
heathen. The same is true of New Zealand, espe¬ 
cially on the northern part of the island where the 

1 Die Uberblick liber das INIissionswerk der Briidergeraeinde, 
1879, p. 40, sqq.; and Grundemaiin, Orientirende Ubersicht, 
Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 401, sqq. 



82 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN 3IISSIONS : 


work is more extended. Overcome bj fierce wars, 
and vanishing before the pressing advance of 
white colonists, who now outnumber them ten¬ 
fold, the Maoris (of whom there are now onl 3 ^ 
thirty thousand) do not offer as promising a 
mission field as formerl 3 ^ 

The principal work among them is done by tlie 
Church Missionary Societ}^; and the number of 
native Christians, eleven thousand seven hundred 
and fifteen (1874, ninet^’-four hundred and thirtj^- 
uine), under sixteen European missionaries, twentj - 
seven native pastors, and two hundred and twenty 
native teachers,^ is increasing because the mission¬ 
aries are looking more hopefully into the future. 
The Wesle^^an mission, much injured by the war, 
to which several thousand ^Maoris belong, and 
the Propagation Socieyv, work especially among 
the colonists.^ The remaining station, which was 
under the Xorth German (Bremen) Missionary 
Society, has been converted into a parish of a 
mixed congregation, while the. Hermanburg mis¬ 
sion, with three stations, still continues. 

I pass over with a glance the great islands 
north and north-west of Australia. Xew Guinea 

1 Abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary Society, 
May, 1870, p. 19, 1880, p. 20. 

The Auuual Report of the M esleyan Methodist Missionary 
Society for 1870, p. 105 (giving 3,G15 communicants, and more 
than o2,000 attending divine service), includes the colonists as 
Trell as the natives, persons of mixed races ; so also the report of 
the Propagation Society, p. 73. 


AMONG UNCIVILIZED NATIONS. 


83 


has been attacked in the north-west by Dutch 
missionaries; in the south-east, since 1871, by the 
London ^Missionary Society, mostly through native 
evangelists from the neighborhood; on account 
of the deeply degraded condition of its inhab¬ 
itants, wdio are yet in their “ age of stone,” and 
the divisions of its tribes and languages (within a 
distance of three hundred English miles, on the 
south coast, there are twenty-five different lan¬ 
guages),^ it is not as yet a field white to the har¬ 
vest, but hard, down-trodden earth, fit for plough 
and seed, upon which, however, already some first 
fruits have ripened; Celebes, including the crown 
of all the Dutch missions, the peninsula IMuiahassa, 
wdiich has become Christian, where over eighty 
thousand out of about one hundred and fourteen 
thousand inhabitants have been converted ; (the}^ 
are divided into a hundred and nineD^-nine congre¬ 
gations, with a hundred and twenty-five schools ; ^ 
the mistake of not training them to be self- 
supporting, now that the attempt is being made, is 
a cause of many difficulties) ; the various new 
Netherland missions on Java and the neighbor¬ 
ing islands, Avhere the large seminary for evangel¬ 
ists at Depok is just completed,—all these show 
that the Dutch are seeking to make good'the long 

1 According to Mr. Lawes, Mildmay Conference, 1878, p. 282, 
and Macfarlane, Lond. !Miss. Soc. June, 1880. 

2 According to the Dutch Missionary Secretary, Neurdenburg, 
at the Mildmay Conference, p. 156, sqq. 


84 


PROTESTAXT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


neglect of these missions; but the large Christian 
congregations upon Amboyna. Ki. and the Aru 
Islands and the other converts in Timor and Wet¬ 
ter. are still waitincr in vain for a missionary.^ 

w * 

The Rhenish mis sion in Southern Borneo, and 
the English Propagation Society in the Xorth, 
continue to ^ain a stronorer foothold; and there is 
a prosperous Rhenish mission among the Battas 
of Sumatra, where there are. including Xias and 
Borneo, four thousand native Christians under 
twentv-five German missionaries. A stroncr ^^all 

• O 

is thus formed against the sudden progress of 
Islamism. which the Dutch crovemment bv the 
use of the Malavish lan^asre in the courts and 
by the employment of Mohammedan officials, has, 
without intending it, greatly assisted. 

II. But a word about the astonishing results of 
our South Sea missions. The fact that we find 
people here at all, is the result of missions. They 
have been the preservation of these peoples, as the 
investigations of ^leinicke. Waitz, Gerland, Ober- 
lander and Darwin prove, by the suppression of 
cannibalism, human sacrifices, and infanticide, by 
the introduction of the rights and laws of civiliza¬ 
tion. and of less savag^e methods of warfare, by the 
elevation of the marriage state, and the like. Even 
travellers for pleasure, medical men seeking to ob- 

1 According to the missionary Dr. Schreiber, Mildmay Con¬ 
ference, p. 140. 





RESULTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 


85 


tain an insight into nature in its primitive state, in 
their reports, have been obliged, against their will, 
to become apologists of missions and of their civil¬ 
izing influences.^ 

Polynesia, inhabited by the brown Malayo-Poly- 
nesian races, is now almost entirely Christianized. 
The real missionary work here is carried on al¬ 
most exclusively by the London and Wesleyan 
societies and the American Board. Starting with 
Tahiti, the London society has so thoroughly 
evangelized the Society Islands, Australasia, Her- 
vey, Samoa, Tokelau, and Ellice, that to-day there 
are only a few heathen left, and those on the last- 
named group.'^ The Wesleyans have flourishing 
missions on the island of Tonga and some of the 
neighboring islands (one hundred and twenty-six 
churches, eight thousand three hundred communi¬ 
cants, one hundred and twenty-two schools with 
five thousand scholars, and over seventeen thou¬ 
sand attendants on divine worship^). The Ameri¬ 
can Board has turned the Sandwich Islands into 
an evangelical land, and a few years ago formed 
the Christians there into the Hawaiian Evangeli¬ 
cal Association, committing to it the further prose¬ 
cution of the work. But this step was a little too 

1 M. Buchner, Reise durcli den stillen Ocean, 1878 ; see All- 
gemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1870, p. 187, sqq. 

2 CY., for this and what follows, the report of the missionary 
Mr. Whitmee at the INIildmay Conference, p. 2GG, sqq., and the 
Annual Report of the London Missionary Society, 1879, p. 53, sqq. 

3 According to Report for 1878, p. 193. 


86 


PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


hasty; for the native preachers are not numerous 
enough to serve the home churches, and carry on 
the work in the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and 
IMarquesas Islands (where the greater part of the 
heathen Malayo-Polynesian population is at pres¬ 
ent), and the American Board intends increasing 
the number of its missionaries there. 

In iSIicronesia, upon the Caroline, Marshall, and 
Gilbert Islands, mentioned above, where the mes¬ 
sengers of the Hawaiian Association are actively 
engaged under the supervision of American mis¬ 
sionaries, the need of more workers is from time 
to time .keenly felt', in consequence of which the 
London Missionary Society, since 1870, has taken 
some of the islands in this group. Here, also, not 
only have many barbarous customs been laid aside, 
but the independence of the native Christians has 
been aroused to a remarkable degree. The best 
of the new converts are sent immediately as new 
seed-corn to the neighboring heathen.^ In fact, 
the cause of the extraordinarv results obtained 
in the South Sea missions lies to a great extent in 
this truly American idea of educating the native 
Christians to self-support. 

Finally, in Melanesia with its black, curly-head¬ 
ed inhabitants, we find the Wesleyan, London, 
Presbyterian, and English State Church missionary 
societies in the full work of harvest. Plere, from 

1 Cf., too, Allgemeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeit- 
ung, 1879, supplement i. 


r.ESULTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 


87 


Fiji there gleams upon us a bright liglit from the 
Wesleyan mission, for which we can only wish 
there were a larger staff of European missionaries. 
See what the governor of this now English island, 
Sir A. Gordon, said, in the annual meeting of ^lay, 
1870, in regard to these, so short a time ago, most 
savage, cannibals : ^ “ Out of a population of about 
a hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred and 
two thousand are now regular worshippers*in the 
churches, which number eight hundred, all well 
built and completed. In every family tliere is 
morning and evening worship. Over forty-two 
thousand children are in attendance in the fifteen 
hundred and thirty-four Christian day-schools. 
The heathenism which still exists in the moun¬ 
tain districts, surrounded as it is on all sides by a 
Christian population on the coast, is rapidly dying 
out.” The islands of the Loyalty Group, occupied 
by the London Missionary Society, are also Chris¬ 
tianized, though they are partly Roman Catholic. 
The missionaries of the Presbyterian Free Church 
of Scotland, the Canadian, New Zealand, and Aus¬ 
tralian Presbyterian churches, have a very diffi¬ 
cult field in the New Ilebrides,^ where the un¬ 
healthiness of the climate, the mulLtude of lan¬ 
guages, the demoralizing infiuences of godless 

•i See Wesleyan Missionary Notices, June and July, 1879, p. 

140, sqq., and Report of 1878, p. 193. 

2 See Report of the missionary, Mr. Inglis, at the Mildmay 

Conference, p. 290, sqq. 


88 


PKOTESTAXT FOEEIGX SIGNS : 


mercliauts. together with the debased condition of 
the inhabitants, withstand the rapid sjjread of the 
gospel. Yet they have three thousand natives 
under Clrristian instruction, eis^ht hundred com- 
municants, and about one hundred native teachers. 

The English Episcopal Missionary Society is 
working side bv side with these, and also in the 
Banks. Santa Cruz, and Solomon Islands, where 
the life of the noble Bishop Patterson was sacri¬ 
ficed in 1871. This work is on a different plan 
from that of all other societies. Xative youths 
are taken from the various islands to the Xorfolk 
Island, where, after being taught for several 
months each year, they are sent back to their 
homes to teach the truth thev have learned: then, 
during the most favorable season of the year, 
their European teachers visit these islands in 
order to get new scholars.^ Time will tell whether 
this svstem can stand the test. 

To sum up, the whole number of communi¬ 
cants in Polvnesia is over thhtv-six thousand ; in 
Micronesia, about tliree thousand ; in Melanesia, 
over thirtv thousand: total, sixtv-eight thousand : 
and the total number of native Christians who 
belong to the evangelical missions is about three 
hundred and* forty thousand.- Their great need 
is more laborers, and especially the training-up of 

1 See Mildmay Conference, pp. 273, 204; also W. Baur, J. C. 
Patterson, 1.S77. 

- Mildmay Conference, p. 268, sqq. 


THE UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 89 


a band of thoroughly instructed native pastors. 
For this purpose they must establish an English 
normal institute for Polynesian students.^ 

III. The missions among the uncivilized peo¬ 
ples of America it is difficult to review briefly. 
We hurry past the silent, patient work of the jMo- 
ravians in Greenland and Labrador, which for 
the most part is no longer missionary, but Chris¬ 
tian service of churches here and there seeking to 
gather the scattered remnants of the heathen 
Esquimaux tribes into 4116'fold of Christ; extend¬ 
ing their labors of late in Labrador to the heathen 
in the north, and in the south to the English set¬ 
tlers ; 2 we hurry past the Danish mission in Green¬ 
land also, which employs in its eight stations 
from’ eight to ten Danish missionaries and one na¬ 
tive preacher; past the mission of the Canadian 
Conference of Wesleyan Methodists, of the Propa¬ 
gation Society among the colonial population and 
also among the Indians of Canada and the inhab¬ 
itants of Hudson’s Bay ; past the important work 
of the Church IMissionar}^ Society in the dioceses of 
Rupertsland, Saskatchewan, and Red River, where 
in spite of the strong opposition of the Catholic 

1 See the above-mentioned Report of !Mr. Whitmee, p. 274. 

2 Missionsblatt der Briidergemeinde, July, 1879; General Sur¬ 
vey, p. 8, sqq. In Greenland, six stations, with 1,526; in Lab¬ 
rador, six stations, with 1,232 converts. 

3 Neither society in their annual reports distinctly separates 
the work among the white colonists and the Indians. 


90 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


mission, and tlie desolation of whiskey with which’ 
the white merchants deluge the Indians, the num-’" 
her of native Christians is rising rapidly, amount- I 
ing now, in the twenty-four stations of this society, 
to ten thousand four hundred and seyent 3 '-two, ] 
with twelve native preachers and twenty-one 
schoolsd We cast but a glance at Columbia, 
on the Pacific coast, where, in connection with 
this society, the schoolmaster AVilliam Duncan, a ^ 

CT^' ' 

j)ractical missionary genius, like whom we have" 
few nowadays, has converted a band of most de¬ 
graded cannibals, and formed out of them in the 
wilderness, with his iNIetlakahtla, morally, reli¬ 
giously, socially, politically, and commercially, a 
wonderfully flourishing Christian community, 
which has astonished the poor, blind heathen far - 
and near, and made them long for the blessings 
of the gospel. Yea, it has placed before the 
world a glorious proof, that by founding Christian 
colonies missions may become the salvation of 
Indian tribes which otherwise are rapidly becom¬ 
ing extinct. This man, who in barely six months 
so mastered the language that he could preach his 
first sermon, which he was obliged to repeat nine 
times the same evening, because nine different 
tribes lived in the village, who (a significant fact) 
would not venture at first to assemble in a general 
meeting, now stands at the head of a community 

1 See abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary So¬ 
ciety, 1879, p. 20, and Mildmay Conference, p. 287. 


THE UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 91 


of about one thousand persons, which has built 
the largest church between there and San Fran¬ 
cisco, besides a parsonage, schoolhouses, stores, 
workshops, and the like, and has even founded a 
daughter-colony of its own.^ 

The former governor-general of Canada, Lord 
Dufferin, on his tour of inspection in 1876, could 
not find words to express his astonishment at 
what he saw in this place. Isolation from hea¬ 
then SLirroundiners and from the influence of wicked 

O 

Europeans, habits of steady work and honest deal¬ 
ing, the establishment of a strict civil discipline 
and order, with a Avise preservation of essential In¬ 
dian institutions (such as a council with twelve 
chiefs), these Avith the iiiAvard transforming poAver 
of pure eA^angelical preaching are the secret of 
such grand results. 

The Church Missionary Society can already 
shoAV, in four stations here, eleven hundred and 
fifty native Christians. Even Alaska, recently 
transferred from Russia to America, the most 
northerly field of Protestant mission Avork, has 
lately been occupied by American missionaries.^ 
There is but little to say in regard to that most 
painful subject of evangelical missions among the 
remnants of the Indian tribes in the United 

1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1878, p. 197, sqq., and 
the Report of Admiral Prevost at the Mildrnay Cojiference, p. 
280, sqq.; also Warneck, Moderne Mission und Cnltur, p. 82. 

2 Reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1879, No. vi., p. 
186. 


92 


PEOTESTAXT FOEEIGX :mSSIOXS : 


States, which now only number from two hun¬ 
dred and fifty thousand to two hundred and sixty 
thousand souls ^ (1876, two hundred and sixty-six 
thousand not counting Alaska), and among whom 
the Moravians (having three stations, including 
one in Canada with three hundred and nineteen 
native Christians), the American Board, the' 
Presbyterians Xorth and South, the Baptists' 
Xorth and South, the American Missionary Asso¬ 
ciation, and recently the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, are working side by side with the Roman 
Catholics. It is well known how unspeakably the 
Indians have suffered at the hands of the whites, 
who so often served them with powder and lead 
instead of the gospel, or hastened them into an 
early grave by whiskey. Since the peace policy: 
of President Grant gave the Indian Agency intoj 
the hands of the Christian denominations, it seems] 
likely that here and there better days will dawnj 
upon them. According to the competent judg-j 
ment of the President of the United States Boardf 

y 

1 Cf. the address of the Hon. F. R. Brunot, at the meeting of; 
the Alliance, Xe\r York ; Proceedings, &c., p. 630, sqq. The! 
Missionary Herald, March, 1878, p. 73, gives their number as 
tv-o hundred and seventy-eight thousand. See also AllgemeineJ 
Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 116, sqq .; Warneck, Moderne Mis-"? 
sion und Cultur, pp. 78-81, and the testimonies there referred to| 
of Waitz, Gerland, and others. The newest calculation is to he] 
found in Christianity in the United States, by Schaff, p. 61. Mr. j 
Brunot, in 1873, estimated the Indians as numbering three hun-J 
dred and fifty thousand; Schaff, in 1879, only as two hundred! 
and fifty thousand. i 


THE UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMEPvICA. 93 


of Indian -Commissioners, Mr. Briinot, given at 
the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at New 
York, the total number of tribes was about one 
hundred and thirty, placed on ninety reservations, 
and speaking fifty different languages. About 
twenty-seven thousand of these are now full 
church-members of the various denominations 
(including Catholics), with one hundred and sev¬ 
enteen congregations and two hundred and nine- 
’teen churches; about two hundred thousand are 
partially or entirely civilized, and only the re¬ 
mainder are living wild upon the chase. Twelve 
thousand two hundred and twenty-two Indian 
children are receiving instruction in three hun¬ 
dred and sixty-six schools (including Catholic). 
It is therefore too late to ask the question, 
Avhether they can be civilized. The Cherokees, 
Choctaws,* Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and 
others (among whom the American Board, the 
Presbyterian Board, and Southern Baptists work 
especially), with their churches, schools, acade¬ 
mies, and newspapers, their legislative assemblies 
and codified laws, yea, even as to their spiritual 
and moral condition, can bear well the comparison 
with their white neighbors in Missouri, Arkansas, 
and Texas, and allow no further cause for doubt 
that they are capable of civilization. For example, 
there are more than two thousand Creeks, and 
more than twenty-five hundred Choctaws and 
Chickasaws, who are full church-members. The 


94 


Pr.OTESTAXT FOEEIGX ^nSSIOXS : 


Protestant Episcopal mission among the Dakotas 
and Sioux, the missions of the American Board 
and the Presbyterian Board among the same, and 
those of the latter among the Xez Perces,^ the 
Methodist mission among the Yakamas, are all 
advancing and establishing the truth of the for¬ 
mer experience, which certain colonial govern¬ 
ments seem first to have learned after great 
mistakes and much unnecessary expense ; \dz., that 
one missionary can take the place of many sol¬ 
diers I If the work goes on slowly in many places, 
let us not forget that it must be very difficult for 
an Indian to take the gospel from those who have 
always, from the beginning, been his oppressors 
and persecutors. The general idea that the In¬ 
dians must of necessity die out is refuted by the 
fact that at least the Christian Indians in many 
places, are increasing in population,^ and that 
their outward condition is rapidly improving. 
The gospel preached among them by two hun¬ 
dred and twenty-six American missionaries (Catho¬ 
lics included) is proving a savor of life unto 
life; whilst all usages and requisites of civiliza¬ 
tion, without the gospel’s morally regenerating 
power, serve to destroy them more quickly, as 
they do all uncivilized peoples. 


1 See Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby¬ 
terian Church, New York, 1879, p. 7, sqq.; Report of the Ameri¬ 
can Board, 1878, p. 99, sqq.; Schaff, p. 61. 

2 See Missionary Herald (Boston), 1878, November, p. 382. 


THE UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMEPICA. 95 


To-day more than forty-one thousand Indians 
can read and write, and this number is increased 
annually by twelve hundred. In 18G8 they occu¬ 
pied but seven thousand four hundred and sev¬ 
enty-six ordinary dwelling-houses; in 1877, twenty- 
two thousand one hundred and ninety-nine. In 
1868 they cultivated only fifty-four thousand two 
hundred and seven acres of land; in 1877, two 
hundred and ninety-two thousand five hundred 
and fifty. In 1868 they harvested four hundred 
and sixty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty- 
three bushels of grain ; in 1877, four million six 
hundred and fifty-six thousand nine hundred 
and fifty-two bushels ! ^ Their increase in stock 
was in like proportion. These are not signs of 
rapid decay. Clearly, turning over the Indian 
question from conscienceless political agents and 
freebooters, to the Christian Church, has inaugu¬ 
rated a change for the better. For this reason 
the time has come for the Church to take up this 
mission work among the Indians, with unprece¬ 
dented zeal, courage, and hope. There are 
many crying acts of injustice to make good, 
and the trust in white men which has been 
lost must be won back. Whether the present 
number of workers is large enough for this; 

1 See the interesting statistics in the Missionary Herald, 
March, 1878,-p. 73 ; and September, 1877, p. 292. The latter (see, 
too, Warneck, as,above mentioned, p. 79) may be somewhat al¬ 
tered by the later tables of 1878, 


96 


PEOTESTAXT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


/ 


whether delay niay not cause great distress to 
some of the perishing remnants of tribes; whether 
the former policy, namely, of massing the redskins 
in the Indian Territory and in a few large reserva¬ 
tions, was and is possible without violating the 
rights of individual tribes; whether the crowding 
toofether of heathen disorder is not hurtful to real 
progress, — these are now questions over which 
the friends of missions in the United States are 
earnestly engaged^ 

I pass over the great work of the evangeliza¬ 
tion and Christian training of the negroes in the 
United States, of wliich, a short time ago, the 
Jubilee Singers of Fisk Universit}^ gave a stirring 
proof to the half of Europe. I only remark, that 
since the war, more than one thousand churches 
have been built for them in the South, and hun¬ 
dreds of thousands have joined churches, especially 
the Methodist and Baptist churches.^ The Amer¬ 
ican Missionary Association has erected twenty-six 
high schools (attended by six thousand pupils) in 
order to train freedmen for teachers and mission¬ 
aries,^ and already two hundred and nine of these 
are at work. 

lY. The present condition of the mission work 

1 See Missionary Herald, 1878, p. 382. 

2 As many as two hundred thousand have joined the Episco¬ 
pal Methodists. See Apologete, July 14, 1879. 

3 According to the Report of Dr. White at the Mildmay Con¬ 
ference, p. 54, sqq. The Freedmen’s Missionary Aid Society, in 
London, co-operates with this association. 


WEST INDIES AND CENTKAL AMERICA. 97 


in the West Indies and Central America can 
only be tonclied also *in passing. The Mora¬ 
vian mission upon the IMosquito Coast, partly 
among the native Indians, partly among the ne¬ 
groes and mnlattoes, although always vexed by 
Jesuitical Nicaragua, is continually blessed and 
progressing; there are now seven stations and 
1,105 native Christians.^ The mission of the Prop¬ 
agation Society among the Indians on the Esse- 
quibo and Berbice, in British Guiana, has within 
the last few years been extending itself so rapidly ,2 
that already upwards of three thousand — about 
half of the Indian population there — have been 
gathered into Christian churches. The Moravian 
mission also among the negroes in Surinam (Dutch 
Guiana), whose largest congregation is in Para¬ 
maribo (one hundred years old) with six thousand 
five hundred and ninety-two souls, is extend¬ 
ing its old boundaries, though slowly, south¬ 
ward up the stream into the unhealthy Bushland, 
and as far as the Auka and Saramacca negroes, 
many of whom, of their own accord, beg for Chris¬ 
tian instruction. Then, by force of circumstances, 
the same society has been laboring among the' 
Chinese and Indian coolies, who have been called 
: to work on the plantations in place of the negroes, 

1 Missionsblatt der Briidergemeinde, July, 1879. Ueberblicke, 
p. 27. 

2 Four hundred and eighty-six baptized in 1877. See Report 
' for 1878, p. 101. 



98 


PPwOTESTA^sT FOPEIGX 3IISSIOXS: 


the latter havinor been widely scattered since the 

O 

abolition (1872) of stat^ supervision. Finally, 
recently it has adyanced to the West into the 
British territory, where in Demerara it has been 
able to found two new stations; so that in spite of 
the considerable loss by the emancipation of the 
slayes, the total number of Christians under the 
care of the Morayians, twenty-one thousand (for¬ 
merly twenty-four thousand), is not likely to suffer 
further diminution.^ 

The Morayian missions also reyeal a double 
aspect in the West Indies, their oldest mission field. 
In the Danish West Indies (St. Thomas, St. Jan, and 
St. Croix), the number of their negro Christians 
has, on account of unfayorable circumstances, some¬ 
what diminished; while in the English West Indies, 
where they haye now at Fairfield, Jamaica, a theo¬ 
logical seminary, it has increased. In both to- 
gether, they have oyer thirty-six thousand con¬ 
verts, who really form Christian congregations, 
rather than mission stations; but in the matter of 
supporting their own ministry, they haye as yet 
given no reliable indications, so that the Mora¬ 
vians haye just begun to place this great mission 
district upon »a self-supportiug basis, in regard to 
nativ e preachers, teachers, and church expenses. 
They hope to accomplish this in about ten years. 
We see the same endeayors put forth iu the West 

1 Cf. Uberblick of 1879, with the Annual Reports of 1870, and 


WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA, 99 


Indies b}' the English missions of the Wesleyan, 
London, Scotcli United Presbjderian societies, the 
Propagation Society, and certain American so¬ 
cieties, which we cannot follow in detail. The 
greatest number of members among these, and in 
the Protestant missions generally in the West 
Indies, belong to the Wesleyans. Their latest re¬ 
port from Antigua, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Hon¬ 
duras, Bahamas, and the Ilayti district, gives the 
number of members as over forty-one thousand, 
and those who attend church services, as over one 
hundred and twenty-six thousand.^ The Guiana 
district, with four thousand two hundred members 
and twenty thousand attendants, is not included. 
Yet the number of members in the Anglican Epis¬ 
copal missions in Antigua and Jamaica, white and 
black together, appears not less than that of the 
Wesleyans. The numbers increase continually 
everywhere. 

But the social condition of the negroes, often 
! Avholly impoverished, leaves much still to be ac¬ 
complished. How far this results from the mode 
! of emancipating the slaves, opinions differYet 

1 Report for 1879, p. 168, sqqk On tlie other hand, Mildmay 
Park Conference, p. 36, the numher of members is given at 
seventy-two thousand, probably including Europeans; the same 
number of Anglican Episcopalians, and fifty-three thousand 
1 Baptists. The members of the United Presbyterians amount to 
6,691 communicants, according to their missionary record, June, 
1879, p. 529. 

i 2 g(30 Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 551; also Bux¬ 
ton’s Slavery and Freedom in the British West Indies, p. 92; 

: and Underhill at the Mildmay Conference, p. 31, sqq. 




100 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


there are already a number of congregations self- 
supporting, both as regards pastors and church 
expenses, especially among the Baptists, who only 
now and then receive a pastor from England. 
Others are approaching this goal.^ The acade¬ 
mies have negroes as well as whites in the high¬ 
est classes. The lately disestablished Episcopal 
Church is also preparing to be self-supporting, and 
many of the former mission congregations of the 
Church Missionary Society are now incorporated 
with the parishes of the Anglican bishop. 

Jamaica is essentially a Protestant land, strewn 
with Christian congregations and mission stations; 
although a greater part of the inhabitants do not 
yet belong to any church. In all of the British 
West Indies, with over one million inhabitants, 
two hundred and forty-eight thousand are regular 
attendants at the house of God; about eighty- 
five thousand are communicants in the various 
mission churches, and seventy-eight thousand six 
hundred 2 children are being instructed in one 
thousand one hundred and twenty-three day 
schools (about forty-five thousand of these, in 
Jamaica). 

The evangelical missions on the southern ex¬ 
tremity of South America, established by the Lon- 


1 See the Report of the Rev. Mr. Murray, Allgemeine Mis¬ 
sions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 116. 

According to accounts given by Underhill, Mildmay Confer¬ 
ence, pp. 35-37. 


IN AFRICA. 


101 


don South American Mission Society, no longer 
teach simply the youths on one of the Falkland 
Islands: they have now founded stations also in 
Tierra del Fuego itself, and Patagonia; have bap¬ 
tized some dozens of converted natives, and beorun 
to arouse these most degraded Indians from* their 
stupidity ; ^ indeed, recently they have commenced 
work among the Indians of Brazil, by establishing 
a station on the Amazon (1874). 

Summary. — The American mission field among* 
uncivilized peoples appears thus: In the North 
and South are the Indians; in the centre — tlie 
West Indies and Guiana — are chiefly negroes. 
Among the former, the results are in certain parts 
meagre, in other parts, especially at present, there 
; is promise of a rich harvest; in the latter, the 
j results are very remarkable ; ten thousand negroes, 
in the United States hundreds of thousands, are 
ministered to by hundreds of colored preachers. 

V. It is otherwise in the home of the negroes, 
— Africa. This immense and homogeneous conti¬ 
nent, groaning under the curse of the slave-trade, 
the darkness of superstition, and the bloody 
sceptre of an iron despotism, already half of it 

^ See Missionary News, June, 1871, March, 1877; pp. 27, 39, 89; 
where the missionary, Mr. Whaits, gives interesting testimonies 
of some Pesherehs, who confessed that now they understood 
why, long ago, Allen Gardiner and others took so^much trouble 
with them, and how they now regretted their indifference and 
ingratitude towards those first evangelists, &c. 






102 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


under the yoke of Islam; before whose estuaries 
lono^ sand-banks stretch beneatli the heavy surf; 
whose interior is encircled by the broad, rainless 
belt of Sahara, while the entrances are at all 
points barred b}^ the deadly fevers of the tropical 
climate, — this land has as yet been occupied by 
Protestant missions only upon the coast. 

But now she begins to surpass all other lands 
in her forward march out of these thousands of 
years of darkness. Traversed by heroic missiona¬ 
ries and other explorers, her inmost recesses have 
been unlocked; and evangelical teachers from the 
south and east, yea, lately, even from the west, 
are pressing through these newly opened ways, 
up to her very heart. Forivard to the centre ! has 
suddenly become the watchword with which the 
friends of missions are to-day calling for ex¬ 
traordinary exertions in this field. Already the 
hope is awakened, that with the latest Scotch- 
English mission-settlement, on the East-African 
interior lakes, a new leaf will be turned for the 
future history of missions and of churches in 
Africa. 

The three Protestant mission centres in Africa 
— a large portion of the west coast, the southern¬ 
most cape, and one or two points in the east, — I 
will consider together, in order to subjoin a few 
remarks upon missionary experiences in general, 
among uncivilized peoples. 

If we look away from certain small missionary 


IN AFRICA. 


103 


beginnings in West’ Africa, —such as those of the 
Paris Missionary Society in Senegambia; of the 
Wesleyans in Gambia, who now have seven sta¬ 
tions with six hiindrecl and forty-five full mem¬ 
bers ; 1 those of the mission on the Pongas, sup¬ 
ported by the converted negroes from the West 
Indies, under the supervision of the bishop of 
Sierra Leone; those of the United Presbyterian 
. Church of Scotland, in Old Calabar, which now 
has five stations, with one hundred and eighty- 
one communicants; 2 those of the English Baptists 
I on the Cameroons, who have four stations, with 
i about one hundred and fifty baptized converts; 
those of the Corisco and Gaboon missions, former¬ 
ly of the American Board, and now of the Ameri¬ 
can Presbyterians,^ — there remains between these, 
as a larger, better occupied, and more fruitful 
field. Sierra Leone, one of the few districts of 
Africa where mission work has really taken on the 
form of parish work, so that the Church Mission¬ 
ary Society could take most of the congregations 
under her care, and place them in parishes under 
I a bishop.^ Sierra Leone itself, the little English 

1 Report for 1879, p. 151. 

2 Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, 
June, 1879, p. 527. 

3 The American Presbyterians have here about three hundred 
members, and four hundred and seventy-four scholars in four sta¬ 
tions; see Report, 1879, p. 30, sqq. 

^ There are now fully three stations, with nine hundred and 
fifty Christians; see abstract of Report, 1879, p. 4. 






104 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


peninsula, is to-day an evangelical land-, whose 
Christian inhabitants for the most part are divided 
between the missions of the English and Wesleyan 
Churches, which have here thirtv-two churches,^ 
with five thousand six liundred and seventy-five 
full members, and over sixteen thousand attend¬ 
ants on divine worship, and instruct twenty-six 
hundred children in twenty-two day schools. A 
considerable number belong in addition to the 
Lady Huntingdon Connection, and the United 
Methodist Free Church. The Fourah Bay Col¬ 
lege also, for training colored preachers, is con¬ 
tinually advancing in prosperity. 

In the Black Republic of Liberia, which was at 
first hailed with too great hopes, we find various 
American missionary societies in operation. The 
Methodist Episcopal with forty-three churches and 
twenty-two hundred members,^ the PresbjTerian,^ 
and the American Missionary Association. How 
far the negroes sent back from America are able to 
spread Christian civilization, cannot be determined 
until after a longer trial.^ 

L^pon the Gold Coast and Slave Coast, the Eng- 
lish MTsleyan, the Basel, and North German Mis- 

1 Report, 1879, p. 151. 

2 Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Churcli for 1879, p. 4. 

3 With eight stations and two hundred and fifty-four commu¬ 
nicants; see Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the 
Presbyterian Church, 1179, p. 28, sqq. 

^ See Grundemann, Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, 

p. 16. 


IN AFRICA. 


105 


sionary Societies work side by side. The attempts 
of the Wesleyans to press on to Ashantee seem 
to have been abandoned after a short time. Upon 
the Gold Coast, however, the number of their 
stations (fourteen) and inembers have grown con- • 
tinually (now six thousand six hundred and 
thirty, with thirty-seven thousand attendants on 
public worship).^ The Basel Society, which last 
year celebrated the jubilee of its fifty years of 
hard work on the Gold Coast, has extended its 
field of labor over the districts of Accra, Adang- 
me, Akuapem, and Akem, and has recently found¬ 
ed the first congregation in Ashantee. In nine 
principal and thirteen out stations, they have gath¬ 
ered four thousand negroes into Christian congre- 
gations, and one thousand one hundred and thirty 
scholars^ into forty-one lower and high schools. 
They have translated the Bible into the Ga and 
Otshi languages; introduced various trades; laid 
out orderly plantations and pleasant Christian vil¬ 
lages, so that in many places the primeval forest, 
with its poisonous vapors, begins to recede. Much 
smaller has been the work, but proportionately 
greater the sacrifices by pestilence and war, of the 
North German iMissionary Society, which has four 
stations and a few hundred baptized converts on 
the Slave Coast. 

1 The Report of 1878 gives eight stations; that of 1879, fourteen 
(p. 152); with 87 schools and 2,647 scholars. 

2 Evangelischer Ileideuhote, August, 1879, p. 61. 


106 .PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 

The mission in the Yoruba-lands, though grow¬ 
ing slowly under many changing circumstances 
(^cf. the missions in Abeokuta), is yet not un¬ 
important. Here the Church Missionary Society 
• with eleven stations, six thousand one hundred 
and nine native Christians, and one thousand 
six hundred and ninety-eight scholars,^ and the 
Wesleyan (together with the Yoruba and Popo 
district, six stations, with one thousand and 
eighty-two members and tliree thousand five hun¬ 
dred hearers),^ work side by side again, with 
the American BajDtists of the Church South. 
Through the former, Protestant missions come in 
contact here with the bloody Dahomey. It is 
encouraging, also, that the important mission work 
in Abeokuta is gradually being taken up again. 
We have the most interesting spectacle on the 
Niger, where only colored pastors and teachers, 
under the colored Bishop Crowther, in connection 
with the Church Missionary Society, are engaged 
in the work, which Avithin the last few years has 
been consecrated by martyr-blood.^ These are 
wonderfully overcoming their first difficulties, and 
number fifteen hundred Christians, eleven stations^ 

1 Abstract of the Report, 1879, p. 5. 

2 Report, 1879, p. 152. 

8 See, e.g.. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society, 
1877-78, p. 38. 

4 Cf. the sudden revulsion of feeling in Bonny after violent 
persecutions of the Christians (abstract of the Report, 1879, p. 6, 
Bqq.). Ch. Miss. Intel. March, 1880. 


SOUTH AFKICA. 


107 


•—a token that Africa must be won chiefly by 
Africans. 

With a mighty leap over Congo-Livingstone, 
where the Livingstone (Congo) Inland IMission 
of the East London Institute for Home and For¬ 
eign IMissions has been seeking since February, 
1878, to obtain a firm hold, and press from the 
West into the interior,^ and over the great ceme¬ 
tery of the Catholic mission in the Portuofuese 
territory of Angola and Bengiiela, where (as in 
the East on the coast of Sofala and Mozambique) ^ 
no trace of the once flourishing Portuguese mis¬ 
sions remains, we reach South Africa. 

VI. Here upon the coast stretching toward 
Ovampo-land, we meet in the most northern out¬ 
posts of evangelical missions the beginnings of 
the Finnish Lutheran Missionary Society (among 
the Ovahereros), which, pressing onward from the 
Rhenish mission stations, have established four 
stations since 1870.^ Then follows the Rhenish 
mission in Hereroland, which, after long storms 
of war, has suddenly come out into a flourishing 
condition, and has in thirteen stations twenty-five 
hundred baptized converts,^ and has given to this 

1 It lias fourteen missionaries and stations on the lower Congo, 
May, 1880. 

2 Mildinay Conference, p. 48. 

3 Lately the Finnish IMissionary Society has also begun the 
work of evangelization among the Finns and Laplanders on the 
Esthland Islands in Gulf of Bothnia. 

Annual Reiiort of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1877-78, 
p. 19, sqq. 


108 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


giant race of black herdsmen (seven feet tall) the 
New Testament and Psalms in Otyiherero. Since 
the Weslejans have withdrawn, the Rhenish mis¬ 
sion has also been laboring alone in the adjoining 
district of Great-Namaqnaland, where (having left 
the black negroes) we meet the yellow-brown Hot¬ 
tentots. There are here six stations and thirty- 
three hundred convertsd On the liard and — 
through drought, famine, and wandering bands of 
European miners — much-tried country of Little- 
Namaqualand, Avhere some of the stations have 
been abandoned because of the exodus of the 
famished inhabitants, both -tliese societies are 
seeking to gather and save the remnants of this 
vanishing race. On the other hand, the Rhenish 
mission in Cape Colony has ten stations, Avith 
about eight thousand converts, and numerous con¬ 
gregations Avhich are noAv strong enough to be 
self-supporting.^ 

We find in the Cape Colony and its neighbors 
a centre of Protestant missionary activity. In 
the number of societies and resources, there is no 
other place in Africa equal to it. The entire 
colony has become a Protestant land, in Avhich the 
daughter churches of the English State and of 
various Dissenting bodies have so developed that 

1 Annual Report of the Rhenish Missionary Society, p. 14, 
sqq., and Gedenkenhuch der rheinischen'Missions-Gesellschaft, 
1878, p. 1G8, sqq. 

2 Annual Report, 1877-78, p. 7, sqq. 


SOUTH AFUICA. 


100 


they are in*a measure self-supporting. I'lie work 
among the white colonists, the natives, and the 
mixed population goes on simultaneously. Espe¬ 
cially is this true of the Anglican Church, through 
the extended activity of the Propagation Society, 
and of the Reformed Dutch (one of the oldest 
churches in the land, which for a long time did 
nothing for evangelization), through the “ Syno- 
dale Zendingscommissie in Zuid-Africa.” AVe will 
not here follow individually the thirteen British 
and Continental societies at work in this district, 
hut only remark brielly the following: some are 
directing their energies, supported by stations in 
Cape Colony, specially, to the north, in order to 
press on into the interior of Africa beyond the 
British borders. This is the case with the London 
Society, which, as formerly in the Cape, now in 
British Kafraria, is seeking to make its work self- 
supporting,^ and uses its chief strength on the 
Bechuana mission, which, notwithstanding many 
external disturbances, continually spreads light 
and blessing particularly from Kuruman outward. 
The Moffat Institute, built in honor of the founder 
of this mission (and translator of the Bible), was 
moved thither in 1876.^ 

Then comes the Berlin Soutli-African mission, 
whose work, notwithstanding the society’s exceed¬ 
ingly reduced means, stretches over all South 

1 London Missionary Society, Report for 1879, p. 37. 

2 Ibid., p. 39. 


110 


PKOTESTAKT FOEEIGK MISSIONS: 


Africa, and Avliich now lias in its care, in Cape 
Colon}", British Kafraria, in the Orange Free 
States, in Natal, and especially in the recently 
annexed Transvaal, under six district superin¬ 
tendents, forty-two stations, fifty-three ordained 
missionaries, several colonists, and about nine 
thousand baptized native converts^ Further, the 
Paris evangelical mission among the Basutos, 
which has now risen from the severe injuries suf¬ 
fered through the Dutch Boers of the Orange 
Free States, is rapidly growing, having fifteen 
missionaries, one hundred and twenty-two native 
helpers, and a circuit of fourteen principal stations 
and sixty-eight outposts, with three thousand nine 
hundred and seventy-four full church-members, 
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight 
baptized children, and three thousand one hun¬ 
dred and thirty scholars.^ Finally the Hermanns- 
burg JMissionary Society, which has established 
forty-nine stations among the Bechuanas, within 
and without the Transvaal, among the Kafirs, in 
Natal and Zululand, numbering now about five 
thousand converts. It was injured by the late 
war, much more than the Berlin mission, which 
with the burning church question at home makes 
its condition at present doubly critical. Pier niis- 

1 Cf. Dr. Wangemann’s Survey at the Mildmay Conference, 
1878, p. 50. 

2 See Appia’s Deport at the Mildmay Conference, p. 87, and 
reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1870, p. 184, sqq. 


SOUTH AFRICA. 


Ill 


sionaries, as those of the Swedish mission, seem 
for the time to have left Zuliiland. The late war 
has destroyed not fewer than thirteen of the sta¬ 
tions belonging to the Ilermannsbnrg missiond 

Other societies have extended their work from 
the Cape, mostly toward the east and north-east, 
in order to evangelize the British and free Kafirs. 
This is the case with the MoraAdan Society, which 
has under its supervision in the west province, in 
seven principal stations, eight thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and eighty-six converts, and in her seven 
eastern stations two thousand.^ Her mission has 
•also lately pressed Avith greater force and richer 
results toAvard the eastern side of South Africa, 
into the heathen district. Also the difficult field 
of the Wesleyan mission, Avhich included the 
Bechuanas in the Orange States, among both 
Avhites and blacks, of the diamond-fields in the 
Vaal, is continually extending from the Cape to- 
Avard the east into the Kafir district and cAmn into 
the Natal territory. Its seventeen thousand full 
church-members hi sixty-nine stations ^ are divided 

1 See Calw., Missionsblatt, 1879, p. 72. Last year about seven 
hundred heathens in Africa were baptized in the Hermannsburg 
mission. 

^ Missionsblatt, July, 1870; Survey, p. 47, i^qq. Lately the 
Swedish Church Missionary Society began a mission among the 
Zulus, which however, owing to the present uncertain condition 
of the country, could not get beyond a “ mere sounding of the 
territory.’' 

3 Cy. the AVesleyan Report, 1879, p. 133, sqq.: nine stations in 
the district of the Cape (with 1,502 members), 18 stations in the 


112 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


among the white colonists and natives. Whether 
the hard mission field among the Kafirs will be 
still harder in the future on account of the war, 
will only be determined after patient waiting. 
The “tribe-system,” according to which land in 
a settlement is not owned by individuals, but is 
the common possession of the tribe, proves more 
and more an especial hinderance to social prog¬ 
ress, and a cause of the tenacious continuance of 
barbarous rites and customs.^ Its discontinuance 
by government would remove one of the greatest 
bulwarks of darkness, and prepare the way for the 
acceptance of the gospel. The promising and < 
flourishing Lovedale Institute (British Kafraria), 
of the Free Church af Scotland missiocns among the 
Hottentots, Kafirs, Fingoes, Bechuanas, Basutos, 
and Zulus, for the education of ministers and teach¬ 
ers, and instruction in various trades, wherein three 
hundred and ninety-three youth out of all these 
tribes study side by side with Europeans, where 
three periodicals are published (one in the Kafir 
language), and sixty of whose students, every 
Sunday, preach the gospel in the neighboring 

district of Graharastown (5,595 members and 21,000 attendants), 14 
stations in the Queenstown district (with 4,288 and 20,000 mem¬ 
bers, respectively), 14 in the Bloemfontein district (.‘>,805 and 
17,400), and 14 in the Natal district (2,409 and 20,000). 

1 See the remarks of Sir Bartle Frere and the Rev. Mr. Blen- 
cowe, at the Mildinay Conference, p. 279, sqq. It is worthy of 
observation that the fidelity of the Christian Kafirs to the Eng¬ 
lish colors is repeatedly mentioned in this war: cf. Report of the 
Propagation Society, 1879, p. 54. 


EAST AFRICA. 


113 


villages,! demonstrates most conclusively how 
capable all these South-African tribes are of civili¬ 
zation and culture. This institute has a daughter 
institute in Blythswood, on the other side of the 
Agi. Nothing would so surely prevent future 
Kafir wars, as the midtiplication of such mission 
institutes.2 The Scotch Free Church in British 
Kafraria has in seven principal stations two thou¬ 
sand communicants. Of the six stations of the 
United Presbyterian Church, with nine hundred 
and forty-one communicants, the war has unfor¬ 
tunately swept away five.^ The ten stations of 
the American Board in Natal and Zululand, with 
six hundred and twenty-six church-members,^ and 
the Norwegian mission, grow slowly, amid the 
storms of war. At present, however, all the Nor¬ 
wegian missionaries have probably been driven 
out of Zululand. The total number of converts 
gained among the South-African barbarous tribes, 
b}^ evangelical missions, is now thirty-five thou¬ 
sand communicants, and about a hundred and 
eighty thousand nominal Christians.^ 

1 See for further details Dr. Stewart’s Address at the Mildmay 
Conference, p. 68, sqq. Already it has sent forth four ordaiiuid 
Kafir ministers. See G. Smith’s Fifty Years of Foreign Mis¬ 
sions, 1879, p. 58. Free Ch. Record, 1880, p. 55-64. 

2 See Sir Bartle Frere, as above, p. 76. 

3 Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, 
June, 1879; Mildmay Conference, p. 340. 

^ Report of the American Board, 1878, p. 22. 

5 According to J. E. Carlyle, South Africa and its Mission 
Fields (London, 1879), who describes the work of thirteen Prot- 
2stant missionary societies there, and Thornley Smith, James 
Stevenson, and others; Mildmay Conference, pp. 49, 60. 


114 


PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


VII. At present the long-neglected work in 
East and East-Central Africa appears to be grow¬ 
ing equally rapid in proportion. The crown of 
the London Society, Madagascar, looms up to our 
view here, before all others, and maj^ perhaps win 
for East Africa, in a missionary point of view, a 
similar position to that of England for the Euro¬ 
pean Continent. The well-known unprecedented 
progress of the work of evangelization among the 
Hovas since the elevation of Christianity to be the 
state religion (in 1868, twenty-one thousand Chris¬ 
tians ; 1869, one hundred and fifty-three thousand; 
1870, two hundred and thirty-one thousand con¬ 
nected with the London Society) has been obliged 
to 3 deld within the past few years, as was plainly 
necessarj^, to a sifting process, in order to lay the 
foundations of Christian knowledge deeper in 
the hearts of the great mass of nominal Christians, 
and overcome fully old and deep-rooted heathen 
customs and abominations,^ and especially, by edu¬ 
cating native pastors and preachers, to bring the 
young Protestant state church into a secure con¬ 
dition of self-support and constant self-extension. 
It is therefore not a step backward but forward, 
that the number of external adherents in connec¬ 
tion with the London Society has been reduced 

1 Cf. the many complaints of hackslidings into heathen errors, 
which could not fail to take place with such rapid progress. See 
London Report, 1879, p. 25, sqq., with reference to the revival of 
the judgment of Tangena (poisonous draught). 


IN MADAGASCAR. 


115 


from two hundred and eighty thousand ^ to about 
two hnndred and thirty-three thousand, while the 
number of full members, during the same period 
last year, increased about six thousand, and is now 
sixty-seven thousand seven hnndred and twenty- 
nine. If we inclnde the fact also, that now three 
hnndred and eighty-six ordained native pcastors, 
one hnndred and fifty-six evangelists, and three 
thonsand fonr hnndred and sixty-eight native 
local preachers, under the care of the London 
missionaries, are helping gather in the harvest; 
that, besides several high schools and institutes, 
forty-fonr thonsand seven hnndred and ninety- 
four children are instructed in seven hnndred and 
eighty-fonr day schools, of whom more than twen¬ 
ty thonsand can now read; ^ that the good infln- 
ences of the royal proclamation, emancipating the 
imported negro slaves, with which the emanci] 3 a- 
tion of honse-slavery is also connected, shows 
great social progress,—'we have before ns a snc- 
cess consecrated by the blood of many martyrs, 
and nneqnalled for extent in the whole history 
of Protestant missions, great enough to vindicate 
from all attacks missionary labor, as labor blessed 
by God; a success concerning which we can only 
say, “ This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvel- 
ions in onr eyes.” 

1 Probably, too, there has been some over-estimation in former 
statistics. 

2 London Report, 1879, pp. 28, 30. 


116 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


It is natural that this great draught of fishes 
should attract other societies. But that the Propa¬ 
gation Society, notwithstanding the general oppo¬ 
sition in England, should establish an Anglican 
bishop in Madagascar (1874), while the Church 
Missionary Society, in a noble spirit, on account 
of this action withdrew from the field, has touched 
with pain the friends of missions everywhere out¬ 
side of the High Church party, and is a striking 
instance of an unjust elevation of denominational 
interests and church forms over the fraternal duty 
of rejoicing together without jealousy, at the pros¬ 
perity of other churches. From the essentially 
Congregational character of the Madagascar Na¬ 
tional Church, the establishment of High-Church- 
ism, diametrically opposed to its ecclesiastical 
principles and practices, must inevitably work con¬ 
fusion and injury. Up to the present time, the re¬ 
sults of this High Church mission, and also of the 
Catholic, are meagre.^ The Quakers’ Missionary 
Society is also at work in Madagascar, endeavor¬ 
ing especially to bring about the emancipation of 
slaves;^ and the Norwegian Lutheran mission, 
which had in 1874 six principal stations, and now 

1 e.g., in Antananarivo only 159; see Report of the Propaga¬ 
tion Society, 1879, p. 48. Carlyle (see above) complains, too, that 
some missionaries of the Propagation Society in South Africa, in 
their zeal for their own church, meddle with other successful 
missions. 

2 See the Report of the Quaker missionary, Mr. Clark, at the 
IMildinay Conference, p. 234, sqq.; and Illustrated Missionary 
News, February, 1880, p. 15, where the number of Quaker mis- 


EAST AFRICA. 


117 


has a thousand baptized converts, and instructs 
four thousand children in its schools. It iiad last 
year twenty thousand attendants on divine wor¬ 
ship. ^ 

I only mention in passing the Anglican Church 
mission, on the island of Mauritius, and the mis¬ 
sions in the Seychelle Archipelago on the part of 
the Propagation and Church INlissionary Societies,^ 
under the supervision of the bishop of that island. 
On the mainland of East Africa, the coast of Zan¬ 
zibar now comes into the foreground, not simply 
because the little island of the same name has 
been for a long time the seat of the English Uni¬ 
versity mission for Central Africa, but chiefly 
because the revived East-African mission of the 
Church Missionary Society has founded here a 
second Sierra Leone for re-enforcing the efforts of 
the English in suppressing the slave-trade, name¬ 
ly, the flourishing colony of Frere Town at Mom- 
bas, the influence of which is spreading far and 

wide.® Many hundreds of freed slaves are in- 

\ 

structed here, and, strengthened by African Chris¬ 
tians from Bombay, are being gathered into con¬ 
gregations. This society has here six hundred and 
eight converts, in two stations (including the 


sion schools in Madagascar is given as eighty-five, with 2,860 
scholars. 

1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1878, p. 513. 

2 The latter now has 1,055 church-memhers in Mauritius ; Re¬ 
port, 1870, p. 48. 

8 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society’s Report, 1880, p. 
6, sqq. Now, 2 stations, 737 converts, 157 scholars. 


118 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 

revived Wanika mission). The mission of the 
United Methodist Free Church is also gaining a 
strong foothold. 

The courageous advance of various mission so¬ 
cieties to the great East-African central lakes, 
through the ways opened by Livingstone and 
Stanley, is a remarkable feature in the recent his¬ 
tory of missions. Upon the shores of the Lake 
Nyassa we see the Scotch, especially the Free 
Scotch Church, missionaries and colonists since 
1875, in Livingstonia (which should be trans¬ 
planted to another place, on account of the tsetse 
flies) and Blantyre, founding the most beautiful 
and enduring monument to that great friend of 
Africa, — a garden of the Lord, in the midst of 
the wilderness. The worship of God has been 
begun, schools are opened, the slave-trade is sup¬ 
pressed, the faith of the natives won, and the 
founding of a church is soon to follow. The 
first female missionary physician from Scotland is 
already on her way thither.^ Farther toward the 
north, the expedition of the London Missionary 
Society reached in 1878 Lake Tanganyika, in Ujiji, 
in order to establish a colony there; and Dr. Mul¬ 
lens, their untiring secretary, started himself for 
that place to aid in overcoming the difficulties of 
beginning the mission, by opening up a new route 
thither from Zanzibar 

1 Church of Scotland Record, 1879, p. 267, aqq. 

s London Report, 1879, p. 46, sqq. It is with deep regret that 


CENTRAL AFRICA. 


119 


Still farther north, the expedition sent out by 
the Church Missionary Society, in consequence of 
Stanley’s report, from Zanzibar to the great Lake 
Victoria Nyanza (in 1876), not only established 
the station Mpwapwa, with two missionaries, on 
the way, but also settled the chief missionary col- 
.ony, and founded the principal mission-station 
(1877) on the Nyanza itself, in Rubaga, the capital 
of King Mtesa of Uganda (who was so desirous of 
knowledge). The society has now strengthened 
its missionary forces that were weakened by harsh 
treatment, sending new men to' their aid, partly 
by way of the Nile and partly from Zanzibar.^ 
Unfortunately, of late, some French Jesuits (who 
just arrived) have been trying to throw obstacles 
in the way of this mission.^ On the other hand, 
the completed translation of the New Testament 
into Suaheli, by Bishop Steere in Zanzibar, of 
which we have recently heard,^ and the fact that 
Suaheli is understood also among a number of 
tribes around the great lakes and in Uganda itself, 
ought to lighten essentially the work of evangeli¬ 
zation. So ought the new treaty between Eng¬ 
land and Portugal (June, 1879), on the opening 


we hear that he there has met with his death, — a severe loss for 
the whole Protestant missions. Two new stations are begun. 

1 See Church Missionary Report, 1878, p. 53, sqq., and Ab¬ 
stract, 1879, p. 7, sqq. 

2 See Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1879, p. 
725, sqq. 

8 From a notice in The Christian, 3d July, 1879. 


120 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


« 


of the Zambesi for trade and settlement of new 
colonies. We may hope also that the expedition 
of the American Board of Boston, sent out to 
Central Africa, and which is in noble harmony 
Avith all co-laborersd Avill strengthen and further 
the pioneer work of the English, already begun. 

The evangelical mission work in Abyssinia 
among nominal Christians and Jews by certain 
Chrischona brethren (in the service of the Brit¬ 
ish and Foreign Bible Society), and the London 
Jewish mission, only belong in part to the mis¬ 
sion work among uncivilized peoples. They have 
been continued chiefly by means of school work 
since 18G5, especially by the SAvedish Fosterland 
Society, on the Egypto-Abyssinian frontier, and 
under some heavy losses. Since the destruction 
of their only Abyssinian station (Hamasen), they 
are Avaiting for quieter times, in order to advance 
again over the frontier,^ from MassoAvah and Men- 
za. They have recently nearly accomplished their 
origmal aim, of penetrating as far as the Gallas, 
by sending out some native Christians after hav¬ 
ing established a station in Galla-land^ (1877). 
The last report of the Chrischona brother Mayer 
shoAvs that their attempts with King klenelek of 
Shoa have not been fruitless, but that he as a 

1 Sir Thomas F. Buxton, at the Mildmay Conference, p. 49. 

2 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 186. 

3 Missions-Tidning, May, 1879 ; Calw. Mission.-Magazin, 1879. 
p. 70, 


RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 


121 


Christian has abolished the slave-trade throughout 

O 

his whole kingdom.^ , 

The Egyptian work we shall consider under the 
head of the Lands of Islam. 

VIII. Let us make a short halt here, in order, 
out of this almost immeasurably wide extended 
missionary work among uncivilized peoples, to 
notice some of the results of experience, as they 
present themselves to-day more and more clearly, 
in the various societies, although the mode of 
treatment is quite different in separate instances, 
according to race-peculiarities, religion, natural 
talents, and social circumstances. 

The first task of the missionary toward entirely 
barbarous people is always, little by little, to win 
their trust. This is no easy work if the nation 
is wholly barbarous. If the missionary were the 
first white face ever seen among them, it would 
be much easier, but that is rarely the case: others 
have already been there who were not sent by the 
Lord, but drawn by greed of gain, or desire for 
adventure, and who too often have basely misused 
their superiority in external culture and civiliza¬ 
tion, to plunder the poor heathen, which leaves 
them with deep-rooted mistrust, if not hate and 
thirst for vengeance. How difficult for them to 
believe that some one has come for their good, and 

1 See liis letter to the Anti-Slavery Society in London, since 
published by many newspapers; see Reichsbote, Aug. 19, 1879. 


122 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 

not his own! Then it is necessary for the mis¬ 
sionary to make them feel that he has come to 
give, not to take ; to alleviate their misery, and not 
to gain profit from their ignorance. For this not 
simply words, but deeds, are necessary; not simply 
periodical external gifts, which only make “rice- 
Christians,” but a life full of love and loving sym¬ 
pathy which shows itself in Christian mercy and 
gentleness. Here is an educated, gracious Chris¬ 
tian Caucasian, there a boorish, stupid slave of 
darkness, a heathen of entirely different color and 
race ; and across this greatest of imaginable chasms, 
which lies between them, love alone can throw a 
bridge. “ I have found,” says a missionary from 
New Guinea^ “that human kindness is a key 
which unlocks every door, however firmly it may 
seem to be closed against us. In the early days 
of a mission like that of New Guinea, verv little 
dependence can be placed on oral teaching. I 
believe strongly, more strongly now than ever, in 
the power of a consistent* Christian -life.” On 
account of such a life upon the shores of that 
island, the missionaries are now everywhere hailed 
as friends and messengers of peace. Why do I 
remind you of tliis ? Because it cannot be too 
forcibly impressed upon missionaries, that it is 
precisely with those who preach the Word of Life 
that the living in this Word will least bear separa- 

1 The missionary Mr. Lawes ; see Mildmay Conference, p. 
283. 


RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 


123 


tion from it, if it is to demonstrate itself to others 
as a living, fruitful principle everywhere. Es¬ 
pecially among heathen nations the life is more 
powerful to draw men to Christ than preaching. 
Young missionaries in their zeal often run from 
villacre to villao'e in order “ to bear witness,” and 
then return home with a satisfied feeling that 
they have accomplished their mission. But active 
mission work demands much more than that, — 
constant proofs of heart-love.^ ]Mr. Livingstone 
does not say in vain,^ that, if a missionary has to 
deal with the most barbarous tribes even, polite¬ 
ness and good manners are of great value. Pre¬ 
cisely his superior culture, this “ sjoecAficum ” of 
modern missions, will often be dangerous for the 
missionary, a temptation to treat the natives too 
much en bas^ yes, even with haughtiness and rude¬ 
ness instead of with that pity whiclx shone in the 
eye of the Great Shepherd, when, moved with 
compassion, he saw the people as famishing, scat¬ 
tered, shepherdless sheep; and instead of with that 
love which alone has the right firmness and deli¬ 
cacy wisely to conduct educational training. 

Here and there missionaries, Germans also in 
Africa, have failed in this respect. Finally, what 
shall we say in regard to the English (Wesleyan) 
missionary in the South Sea, who, whether from 

1 The missionary Mr. Hughes, JMildmay Conference, p. 332. 

2 Missionary Sacrifices; see the Catholic Presbyterian, Jan¬ 
uary, 1879. 


124 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


necessity, or to make a strong example, in connec¬ 
tion with some settlers, revenged in a bloody man¬ 
ner the murder of certain native teachers by 
cannibals on the Duke of York Island? — an un¬ 
heard-of error in a Protestant missionary, which 
was censured altogether too lightly by the expres¬ 
sion of regret from the Australian-Wesleyan Con¬ 
ference ; against which, because it would easily 
compromise and render difficult the whole mission 
work in those quarters, other missionaries were 
obliged to enter their protest.^ 

As regards instruction, the method of thp 
Master proves itself, with ever-increasing clear¬ 
ness, to be the true one, even among the barbar¬ 
ous heathen.2 He propounded no artificial system, 
spun out into minute detail: he planted, rather, 
many fruitful seeds, yet forming a distinct whole, 
in the hearts of his disciples, out of which, under 
the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, the 
whole tree of apostolic doctrine could afterwards 
develop itself. In working with those unaccus- 


1 The Illustrated Missionary News, Feb. 1, 1879, and Allge- 
meine Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 186, sqq., Calw. Mission.-Magaztn, 
1879, p. 48. A missionary has no right to exercise justice by 
means of the sword, even towards cannibals; for which reason 
many friends of missions were of opinion that the missionary 
(Mr. Brown) should at once have been dismissed. This —fortu¬ 
nately solitary scandal was doubtless tua tcs aqituv for other 
missionaries as well. That which harms the common cause 
ought also in common to be rejected. 

2 Cf. Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 42. Private 
letters of an African Basel missionary to myself confirm this. 


RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 


125 


tomed to abstract thought, one must not system¬ 
atize too much, but be contented with the merely 
fundamental truths, presented in an elementary, 
and, as far as possible, easily-comprehended and 
concise form. On the other hand, experience 
teaches that heathen Christians who cannot read 
may easily become spiritually crippled, through 
superficial teaching in the preparation for bap¬ 
tism ; because they can never derive the same 
blessing from the preaching afterwards as those 
who have been better instructed. 

^ The almost general complaint of the want of 
inner strength in the newly-baptized converts very 
often results from the practice of a too-sudden 
baptism. We Avould recommend, as a rule, a 
longer time for instruction before baptism, unless 
we expect to see some of them relapse, and be lost 
in the heathen mass, which, unfortunately, is often 
the case ; for example, among the negroes of West 
Africa.^ 

1 The old controversy as to whether a heathen should be bap¬ 
tized only after his genuine conversion, or whenever he honestly 
renounces idols, and turns to the living God and his revelation 
in Christ {cf. Heidenbote, 1878, p. 7G), is one which Avill lead to a 
different practice, according to the significance attached to bap¬ 
tism and the sacraments generally. Neither of the two practices 
or views should be made to apply with equal rigor in all places. 
The missionary must examine into every case thoroughly, and, 
according to circumstances, act promptly or with deliberation. 
Even in the primitive Church different methods were em 2 iloyed. 
According to the Clementine Homilies, Niceta was baptized by 
Peter after only one day’s preparation: “ Alioque multis diebus 
oiDortebat ante instrui et doceri ” (vii. 34). Another passage 


126 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


Only where a congregation is less surrounded 
by temptations,—for example, in tlie interior of 
the country, —.is not in contact with licentious 
Europeans who are on the coasts, and especially 
only where there is a band of living and experi¬ 
enced Christians to strengthen and further educate 
this weak babe in Christ, and where it is not a 
case of the first establishmei]t of a church, — 
or in other extraordinary circumstances, a shorter 
preparatory training may be sufficient. 

Yet there is nothing in which a*man sliould 
work so little according to a definite model as in 
missions. Here, above all, clear insight and un¬ 
trammelled independent action is necessary. A 
nation’s character, and the peculiarities of the 
land, which in India, for example, are different 
from those in Africa, necessitate a difference in 
practice. The negro, for instance, has in his 
nature something soft, sensuous, easily excitable, 
unreliable. He needs so mi;ch the more a thor¬ 
ough moral training, less that is exciting, more to 
build up true noble character. 

It is being recognized more and more, that the 
^ frequent change of missionaries greatly embar¬ 
rasses the power of mission work. Service for 
only a few years is, for the most part, of little 

speaks of three months’ preparation as necessary. The Apos¬ 
tolic Constitutions (lib. viii., chap. 32) lay clo\yn three years as 
the proper duration of a catechumenate; without, however, 
making this term binding, because ovx d xpovog uKk^ b rpbnog Kpive- 
Tat, jdainly a right canon. 


RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 


127 


value. Almost without exception, therefore, the 
societies require the missionaries first of all and as 
soon as possible to learn tlie language. Preacliing 
througli interpreters is and always will be of 
' doubtful value, even though they may not make 
such mistakes as one did a short time ago for a 
Scotch missionary on Lake Nyassa, who translated 
“John Knox ” “John the Ox.” ^ It is self-evident 
how important the literary labor of a missionary 
is for people who have as yet an unwritten lan¬ 
guage, who must therefore lay the foundations in 
a nation of a literature in the spirit of the gospel. 
The achievements of different missions are in this 
respect quite unlike, owing in a great extent to 
the rapid changing of missionaries.^ But a too- 
sudden translation of the Holy Scriptures into an 
unwritten language has also its perils. How 
many conceptions and expressions which are of 
inestimable worth, for the future growth of the 
church and of civilized Christian life, must first 
be wrought out and stamped under much prayer, 
which requires a long life lived in the spirit of 
the language ! We should be satisfied for a time 
with the great truths. 

# 

1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p, 183. Graiil (see 
above), p. 135, says of the preaching through iuterjireters, “ The 
result is next to nothing.” * 

2 Cf., e.g., the achievements of the Basel missionaries in West 
Africa, one of whom some time ago received a gold medal from 
the Academy at Paris for his jihilological works, as compared to 
those of the Wesleyans in the same district. 


128 


PliOTESTANT FOIIEIGN MISSIONS: 


It is well that preaching and school instruction 
go hand in hand. On account of tlie great stupid¬ 
ity of many of the older inhabitants, the liope of a 
better future in a barbarous nation lies almost en¬ 
tirely in the young. Thorough schools, and in time 
institutes for higher education, are indispensable 
for every mission. The first aim should be, to 
train independent church-members; the second, 
higher aim, that of winning and training native 
teachers. But these two must not be confounded 
nor identified with each other, but always be de¬ 
termined by the actual wants of a community. 
Where training schools for heathen converts are 
established too early, that is, in the first stages of 
the mission, before the school is adopted by a 
Christian congregation, and fed with good schol¬ 
ars, experience shows, as among the Indians, ne¬ 
groes, and others, that you obtain, to a great 
extent, dry, weak, unsuccessful native teachers. 
Therefore, first produce, through preaching and 
ordinary instruction, a foundation of capable, well- 
instructed, living church-members. If this be once 
secured, then higher education in a Christian sense 
may easily unite with it, such as the native preach¬ 
ers and teacliers should have. A missionary wrote 
me recently, “ For the first few years of a mission, 
a thoroughly converted young man taken out of the 
congregation, of but imperfect culture,.but with a 
decidedly Christian spirit and a good understand¬ 
ing, is of more value to the school than one who is 


EXTERNAL INFLUENCES. 


120 


"Well trained but not thoroughly converted. And, 
when really fundamental work has to he done in 
a mission, only permanently disastrous results will 
ensue, when those who are called upon to do it are 
themselves mechanical and lifeless in spiritual mat¬ 
ters. ^ Give to none more than he can bear with¬ 
out straining himself. Re careful that the enlight¬ 
enment of conscience, and the moral discipline of 
. the heart and will, keep pace with intellectual 
growth. 

With this is connected the question as to the 
training in civilization of barbarous people in 
general. Be not too hasty in introducing mere 
outward culture, lest you ruin both the heathen 
and those who are converted; and do not allow 
them to be led astray through the culture-fanatics 
of our times (who are entirely out of sympathy 
with the Bible teachings), from that fundamental 
mission principle, that external matters are to be 
introduced only so far as they are advantageous 
to spiritual life. Further, the habit of regular 
work and honest acquisition, of cleanliness, of 
having neat clothing and healthy homes, of seek¬ 
ing social progress in general, will everywhere 
come with the gospel. But quite different is it 
as to the luxuries and necessities of civilization, 
which have not, as with us, grown out of a long 
process of social development, and are therefore a 
possession we are able to endure, but are suddenly 

1 Cf. Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 187(3, p. 459. 


130 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN T^IISSIONS : 


introduced from without, to a people wholly unpre¬ 
pared for them, and whom consequently they mor¬ 
ally, spiritually, and physically completely ener¬ 
vated 

Not missions, but intercourse with the world, 
almost unavoidably produces the last-mentioned 
results. Hence the repetition of repulsive carica¬ 
tures of civilization, the black “dandies” and 
“ belles ” of Africa and of the South Seas; hence 
also in part, the swift dying-out of so many abo¬ 
riginal tribes, not to mention the terrible devas¬ 
tations of whiskey, which so often paralyzes 
missionary influence among the Indians in Amer¬ 
ica. So also when the Esquimaux accustom them¬ 
selves to drinking coffee instead of their oil, thev 
become, as has been observed, much less capable 
of withstanding the raw violence of their climate. 

Herein there is need of great care on the part 
of the missionaries. That experienced South-Sea 
missionary, IMr. Murray, gives the correct view 
of this matter, when he writes-, “No external 
progress, meant to be lasting, must be forced un¬ 
timely upon a nation; the people must in the first 
place be spiritually, morally, and religiously so far 
raised, as really to feel tliose wants which create a 
desire for the comforts and requirements of civil- 

1 Cf. Warneck, Die.gegeiiseitigen Bezieliungen zwischen cler 
modernen Mission und Cultur, pp. 281-296. As also the mission¬ 
ary Mr. Lawes (New Guinea), on the want of success of all mere¬ 
ly external means of culture: Mildmay Conference, p. 283. 


CIVILIZING THE HEATHEN CHIHSTIANS. 131 

ized life. Inward and outward things must go 
hand in hand. It follows from this, that every 
thing introduced by mis^sions, as to industries, 
must be made serviceable to the chief work, which 
is spiritual. As beneficial and necessary as the 
introduction of mechanical trades into mission 
stations is, it must not complicate too much the 
leading idea, or bind down the individual char- 
’ acter, of the mission. If the special direction of 
the industrial works is taken by lay preachers, 
school-teachers, and foremen, the missionary im¬ 
pulse, and therewith the healthy progressive devel¬ 
opment, will be entirely lost. 

Closely connected with the introduction of 
external culture is the duty, even among the most 
barbarous peoples, of not denationalizing them 
through Christianization. Otherwise there will be 
a loss of substance to the nation’s power, which 
cannot again be made good. One must distin¬ 
guish between what is useful and is to be cleansed, 
in the aboriginal character, and what is to be 
combated; changing only, as Bishop Patteson en¬ 
joins, “that which is incompatible with the sim¬ 
plest form of Christian teaching and life.” ^ Eng¬ 
lish missionaries in India, especially, have failed 
greatly in this respect. They have entered too 
little into the character of the Indian mind, in 
order sufficiently to respect, and allow to remain, 
that which in its way is justifiable. 

1 Baiir., J. C. Patteson, p. 189. See also Cliristlieb, Missions- 
beruf des evangel. Deutschlands, p. 20, sqq. 


132 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


Englishmen themselves, like Bishop Patteson, 
have openly acknowledged this. One should 
study the peculiarities of the people, and believe 
that the gospel is competent to strengthen by de¬ 
grees even the weak, light, inconstant character ol 
a nation ; to put new power into feeble limbs, new 
courage into timorous souls. The living water of 
the Divine Word contains also an admixture of 
iron! 

The Europeanizing of native workers has fre¬ 
quently proved the beginning of the denationali¬ 
zation of heathen Christians. This not only raises 
an objection to the mission from an entirely un¬ 
necessary source, but places it in a false light 
before the people. The native Christian should, 
as far as consistent with his Christian traininsr, 
remain a full and entire member of his people, 
even as to his mode of life, for only then can his 
congregation support him. There have been many 
mistakes made in this matter. How far it may 
result from defective qualifications in European 
missionaries, we leave to the kind consideration of 
the chairmen of the various societies. It may 
be added here in passing, that the wide-spread, 
though wrong and unjustifiable, custom, which 
native Christians have adopted in India, of wear¬ 
ing European clothing when employed as clerks, 
secretaries, and the like, in order to obtain higher 
wages, demands their attention also ! ^ 

1 I have heard this confirmed and complained of by several 
Indian missionaries. 


DUTY OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIAN^. 133 


It nGeds rGmarkciblG niGii, noted for spiritmd 
enlightenment, intelligence, and strength of charac¬ 
ter, in order to work successfully among barbarous 
people. Not a host of mediocre European mission¬ 
aries, who burden the work for those better fitted, 
will conquer a heathen land : the natives them¬ 
selves must accomplish the j)rincipal work. Hence 
only those European missionaries should be chosen, 
. whose clearly known aim from the beginning is 
the winning of capable workers out of the native 
congregations, in order through them to lead the 
native churches gradually to complete independ¬ 
ence, self-support, self-guidance, self-extension. 
From every worker in the mission, even to the 
mechanic, clear insight, self-denial, and humility 
should be demanded; that he work to make him¬ 
self unnecessary, and seek to see others taking his 
place. 

The old idea that missionaries should be pastors 
of native congregations has been' entirely aban¬ 
doned in America,^ and must disappear more and 
more from among us, both in theory and practice. 
The industrial workshops should also in time be 
cut loose from the missions, and carried on by 
private individual natives. The character of the 

1 In a private letter of Dr. A. C. Thompson of the American 
Board, to myself, he says, “We urge uj^on all missionaries the 
importance of bringing forward, as early and as fast as is consist¬ 
ent, native preachers and pastors, with a view to have this 
work of foreigners pass over into a home missionary work at the 
earliest date that it can be safelj'- done.” 


134 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN JSIISSICNS : 


whole work must continually make the impression 
upon the native congregations, that they are not 
to sit still, but always be pressing onward and ex¬ 
tending the mission work. It is only in this way 
that the missionary impulse can be breathed into 
the congregations, and be retained. 

These objects, kept clearly and continually in 
view, would in time bring the necessary relief for 
the home societies. The support of European 
missionaries, and their buildings, make up the 
great expenses of particular stations. If the 
European character prevails, they build for Euro-, 
peans, on account of health, for instance, more 
substantially and expensively than for natives, and 
the whole burden comes upon the home society 
which supports the European missionary. If, on 
the other hand, the training of native workers in 
and with the formation of nucleus congregations 
be from the beginning the aim of the missionary, 
then the erecting of buildings, because they will 
soon be occupied by native workers, will become 
more the duty of the native members of the mis¬ 
sion church themselves.^ This is now the case, to 
a much greater extent, in English and American 
missions than in the German. But this principle 
must be adopted by the latter also. It is wrong, 

^ An opinion may be formed of how different are the repuire- 
ments for native and European Christians, by the fact that in 
South Africa a chapel .which holds only sixty Euroneans is 
large enough to contain t<To hundred natives. See Wesleyan 
Missionary Notices, September, IST'J, p. 216. 


DUTY OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS. 135 


— I support myself by the judgment of compe¬ 
tent missionaries, — and too much is expected of 
the home churches, when the treasury of the 
home societies, alone or almost alone, must build 
chapels for heathen congregations, and houses for 
heathen preachers and teachers. As the heathen 
congregations build their own dwellings, so ought 
they to learn to build simply, and with their own 
-hands, their houses of worship and parsonages. 
This can the easier take place, the less we Euro¬ 
peanize these workers! 

This much is certain: the chief work must be 
done by natives, even if' under the guidance of 
our missionaries. Therefore their education as 
workers is a great question, as long since, in the 
South Seas,^ they have shown themselves to be 
much more successful pioneers than the Euro¬ 
peans, and they will give this proof in Africa also, 
under like supervision. Without doubt colored 
congregations may be prematurely made inde¬ 
pendent, and mistakes have already been made in 
this direction; especially perhaps there has been 
a too-sudden transfer to the young heathen Chris¬ 
tian congregations of the duty of making collec¬ 
tions.^ But we Germans, and also the Dutch 
(compare their Minahassa Mission), move too 
slpwly and too anxiously in this matter. Our 

1 See London Missionary Society’s Report, 1870, p. 60. 

2 Cf. Allgemeine Missions Zeitsclirift, 1878, p. o8G; 1879, p. 


186 . 


136 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 

stations are comparatively still far behind in self- 
support ; they are, from our State Church mission¬ 
aries down, held too little systematically to the 
above-named principles, and therefore should be 
reminded of the object of foreign missions in the 
native Christian churches, which the Americans 
and English ^ comprehend under three words: 
“ self-support, self-rule, self-extension.” 

II. MISSIONS AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS. 

IX. Turning now to the evangelical missions 
among civilized nations, we will consider, in their 
order, first the lands of Islam, India, China, and 
Japan. Here, where Christianity meets developed 
religious systems, whose institution and opportu¬ 
nities for representation run through the whole 
social and political life, making a more or less 
strong citadel of anti-Christian customs and ideas; 
where a hostile civilization, or half-civilization, 
with its own religious, philosophical, and general 
literature, as a mighty power rules the life of the 
people, and resists the spirit and form of Chris¬ 
tianity,— the difficulties of the mission work are 
without doubt greater, and its results are there¬ 
fore, except in the present time, proportionatelv 
smaller. Yet here, although the fact that these 
nationalities are being permeated Avith gospel light 
may be discredited, as it is to-day in many circles, 

1 So, too, the Church Missionary Society: A Brief View of the 
Principles, &c., 1877, p. 19. 


IN THE LANDS OF ISLAM. 


137 


the results in the near future will be so much the 
more astounding. 

In the lands of Islam, in Turkey, as is well 
known, the greater part of the' evangelical mis¬ 
sion work is performed by the American Board and 
the American Presbyterians. After decades of 
difficulties in opening and extending the work, 
since about 1860 a new and more hopeful mis- 
• sion period has commenced.^ They have been 
obliged until now to turn their efforts chiefly to 
the revival and evangelization of the Oriental 
churches, partly on their own account, and partly 
because the almost petrified condition of Chris¬ 
tianity has brought it so low in the estimation 
of Mohammedans, that only by its regeneration 
can access be gained to their hearts; partly be¬ 
cause Turkish law made, and still makes, a direct 
work with the Moslems almost impossible. Peo¬ 
ple wonder at the continued unfruitfalness of 
missions among them, since the sultan was forced 
by the Crimean War to protect religious liberty. 
But the Turks have altogether a different under¬ 
standing of religious liberty from ours. Religious 
liberty in the sense that every one may worship 
God in the religion in which he was born, they 
have protected since the time of their prophet. 
But religious liberty in our sense of the term, as 

1 Cf. for what follows the treatise of Dr. Clark (American 
Board): The Gospel in the Ottoman Empire, 1878, p. 7, sqq. 
Printed also in the Mildmay Conference, p. 107, sqq. 


138 


PllOTESTANT FOPEIGX MISSIONS ; 


full equality between Christian and Moslem, and 
as the right to go from Islam to Christianity,— 
such religious freedom, the sultan cannot protect 
without openly breaking with the commands of the 
Korand The riglit to proselyte from the Turkish 
.‘.tate religion has therefore never been given, and 
they do not intend to give it, as the recent diplo¬ 
matic negotiations clearly proved We cannot 
expect it, so long as the sultan is the spiritual 
head, the caliph of Islam. Hence do not wonder 
that in the kingdom of Turkey itself the number 
of converted Mohammedans, who must peril their 
lives by accepting Christianity, is reduced to three 
in Constantinople, three in Cairo, and three in 
Jerusalem.^ 

The impossibility of reform in the Oriental 
churches soon leads to the founding of independ¬ 
ent evangelical churches, whose number is now not 
insignificant, and whose spiritual and moral influ¬ 
ence is increasing in its far-reaching effect. It is 
so already in Egypt. The chief mission field here 
is among the Copts, where the United Presbyte¬ 
rian Missionary Society has worked for twenty- 
five years, with ever-increasing results; and, in 
connection with tliese, also among the Syrian 

1 See the clear rendering of the case in the speecli of mis¬ 
sionary Hnglies, Mildmay Conference, p. 325, sqq. 

2 See the letter of Sir Henry Eliot in the Blue Book, 1875, 
referred to by Hughes. 

2 Hughes (see above), 327. Probably this refers to the 
heads of families. 


IN THE LANDS OF ISLAM. 


139 


Jews, Christians, and iNIohainmedans. From Al¬ 
exandria, along the Nile to Nubia, they have six 
organized congregations, with elders and deacons, 
twenty-eight ont-stations with regular services, 
eight hundred and fifty communicants, and about 
eighteen hundred attendants ^ on divine worship. 
Their eight missionaries and six American female 
teachers are aided by four native pastors, seven 
experienced preachers, and seventy native evan¬ 
gelists. 

These young churches already contribute over 
five thousand dollars per year for the work of 
evangelization. One thousand four hundred and 
twenty-four scholars are taught in thirty day 
schools, among whom, for example, in Cairo are 
seventy Mohammedan boys, and seventy Mo¬ 
hammedan girls. Eleven young men are fitting 
for the ministry in the theological seminary at 
Osiut. The English mission, with only one mis¬ 
sionary and a few native teachers, confines itself 
to schools for boys and girls in Cairo ^ (three hun¬ 
dred boys, two hundred girls) and in Damietta, 
aided by the Church Missionary Society; to 
Bible colportage, and to regular divine service in 
Cairo. In 1877 the Americans in Cairo had the 
joy of making three converts from Islamism (see 

1 According to the account of Dr. Watson, Mildmay Confer¬ 
ence, March, 1878, p. 341, sqq. 

2 See the missionary Miss Whateley’s Report, Mildmay Con¬ 
ference, p. 333, sqq. 


140 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


above). In the lands of Turkey proper we find 
no less than seventeen Protestant missionary socie¬ 
ties at work. By far the greatest activitj^ devel¬ 
oped here, even since they gave a great part of 
Syria to the American Presbyterians (1870), is 
by the American Board among the Armenians, 
Greeks, &c. Her field, divided into west, central, 
and eastern provinces, reaches from Bulgaria in 
the Balkans (Eski-Sagra, Samakov, &c.), through 
the whole of Asia Minor, even to the Tioris in 
Babylonia. Here she has built up in the midst 
of the lifeless old church a new Protestant Ori¬ 
ental Church, which to-day comprehends ninety- 
two congregations, with about six thousand com¬ 
municants, three hundred day schools, Avith over 
eleven thousand scholars, twenty colleges, semina¬ 
ries, and high schools, with about eight hundred 
students male and female, and two hundred and 
eighty-five places for preaching and worship. In 
these there are at Avork one hundred and thirty- 
tAvo American professors, missionaries, and female 
teachers, Avith over five hundred natiA^e preachers 
and teachers.i In the Avest province (including 
Constantinople, Avith Bobert College, — a university 
of about tAvo hundred and thirty students out of 
twelve different nations taught in the English lan¬ 
guage,— Brusa, Marsovan, Avith a theological semi- 

^ According to the treatise of Dr. Jessup (Beyrout), at the meet¬ 
ing of the Alliance in New York, p. (141, sqq.; cf. Report of 
American Board, 1878, p. 40, aqq., Clark (see above).' 


IN THE LANDS OF ISLAM. 


141 


nary, Cpesarea, &c.), we find thirty congregations, 
not including those in Bulgaria with over fif¬ 
teen hundred grown members; in Central Turkey 
(including Marash, with a theological seminary, 
Aintab, and others), twenty-six congregations 
with twenty-six hundred members; in the eastern 
(including Harpoot with a theological seminaiy, 
Erzeroom, Van, and others), thirty churches and 
over eighteen hundred members. These churches, 
on the basis of the Westminster Confession, are 
Congregational-Presbyterian, and have evangelical 
provincial synods. Many of them have long been 
self-supporting. What the native preachers are 
accomplishing may be seen from this circum¬ 
stance, that one of them is called “the Spurgeon 
of the church.” ^ 

If we go from here to Syria, we find that out¬ 
side of a few small congregations, the Protestant 
mission is chiefly active in school instruction. 
Here are the British Syrian schools and Bible mis¬ 
sion, the Lebanon school committee, which in con¬ 
nection with the Free Church of Scotland is 
continually establishing schools in this mountain 
range, the Church Missionary Society, the Irish 
Presbyterian, and the American United Presbyte¬ 
rian missions, and especially the Board of I oreign 
Missions of the Presbyterian Church of America. 
That terrible massacre in Lebanon in 1860 opened 

1 According to Dr. Bliss (Constantinople), Mildmay Confer- 
ence, p. 


142 


PROTESTANT EOREIGN MISSIONS: 


the way in an especial manner for these new mis¬ 
sions. Mrs. Thompson began the work for the 
first-named society, and after nine years left as the 
fruit of her labor twenty-three schools, with seven¬ 
teen hundred children. 

Here the children of the murdered often study 
together with those of the murderer, which has 
done much toward establishing a peaceable feel¬ 
ing. “ Madam,” said a Mohammedan pacha at the 
sight of these children, “ such schools as yours, 
wherein all sects are allowed, will make a second 
massacre impossible.” ^ The number of British- 
Syrian schools is now thirty, with three thou¬ 
sand children; and the total of all the schools 
in Syria proper (between Antioch and Nazareth, 
with the remainder of Palestine) is one hundred 
and eighty-four, with three hundred and forty-one 
teachers, ten thousand five hundred and eighty- 
five scholars, of whom four thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and seventy-two are girls, and one thousand 
of these Mohammedans.^ From three to four 
thousand Turkish women also receive Bible 'in¬ 
struction every sabbath in the British-Syrian 
schools. In Beirut, where the American Presbv- 
terians have in the Syrian Protestant College a 
high school, teaching in the Arabic language 

1 Report of Mrs. Thompson’s sister, Mildmay Conference, p 

355, sqq. ^ 

2 According to Dr. Jessup’s account, Mildmay Conference, p. 
366, and the Missionary Herald, February, 1879, p. 52, sqq. 


IN PALESTINE. 14.S 

(recently more in English i), a school of medicine 
also, there are now nearly nine thousand in the 
various schools. Of these three thousand are iji 
the Protestant schools. Twenty years ago there 
were not three hundred children here who went 
to school. Of the twelve printing-presses in the 
city, five belong to the Protestants; and six of 
the nine newspapers. Besides Beirut, the Ameri¬ 
can Presbyterians have occupied Abeih, Sidon, 
Tripoli, and Zahleh; and in these five stations, 
with sixty-six places for preaching, there are twelve 
missionaries, three native pastors, one hundred 
and twenty-seven native teachers and evangelists, 
seven hundred and sixteen communicants, forty- 
five Sunday schools, with one thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and ninety-five scholars.^ 

And Palestine ? 

Oh that I must count this land also as a mission- 
field ! This land loved as no other, wept over 
as no other, distinguished and longed for as no 
other! The land of promise, the apple of the eye 
of God and man, the birthplace of truth and free¬ 
dom, we would gladly place it before us as the 
garden of the Lord, Avherein, as of old, the angels 
ascend and descend. But the crown has long since 

1 With regard to the ever-increasing influence of England, see 
Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church, 1870, p. 36. 

2 Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church, p. .33, sqq.: The Work of the English Press at Beirut, 


144 PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


fallen from the head of the crown of lands, since it 
pressed the crown of thorns upon the only sinless 
head. Truly this land itself is a poAverful sermon, 
wlierein the stones cry out and the ruins testify 
what God has done in grace and judgment. But 
those who dwell there — Turks, Jews, and, alas! 
even Christians — understand it not, so that from 
afar messengers of the gospel must come to ex¬ 
plain the language of the ruins,—must show Jew¬ 
ish infidelity and Christian idolatry that God is to 
be worshipped in spirit and in truth, in order to 
replace the rejected and long-neglected Lord in 
his inheritance! Yes, it is a mission field and a 
very hard one also, with its remarkable divisions 
of Christian and anti-Christian parties and sects, 
occupied and Avorked by many missionary societies, 
but yielding little fruit. The Church Missionary 
Society, Avhich has noAV increased the number of 
its Avorkers, has six stations (Jerusalem Avith a 
small Arabic-Protestant church near the English 
and German; Nazareth, Avith a church of four 
hundred and tAventy souls,^ gathered chiefly from 
the Greeks, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, Es Salt, on the 
east side of the Jordan), Avith thirteen hundred and 
eighty-five native Christians, fourteen schools, and 
eleven hundred and forty-tAvo scholars.^ Outside 

1 Eeport of the Church Missionary Society, 1878, p. 63. 

2 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society’s Eeport, 1880, 
p. 8; Calw. Mission.-Magazin, 1879, p. 48. Christlieb, Heiden 
Mission. 


IN PERSIA. 


145 


of this, there are the London Jewish mission and 
the mission schools of the late Bishop Gobat, 
which have almost all been transferred to the 
Church Missionary Society. We find German 
societies at work here also: the Jerusalem Asso¬ 
ciation of Berlin, the Chrischona mission, the 
deaconesses from Kaiserswerth (these also in 
Asia iNlinor and Egypt) carrying on, especially, 
schools and philanthropic institutions. 

In ancient Ramoth-Gilead (Es Salt), there has 
recently been formed a small congregation of 
Bedouin, and many of their villages ask for 
schools. 

Casting a glance over Persia, we are met on both 
sides of the border with the precious fruits of 
Protestant missions in the lands of Islam, — the 
Nestorian Church, revived by the work of the 
American Board, and since 1871 by the American 
Presbyterians. There are now twelve to fifteen 
thousand members of this church under the influ¬ 
ence of evangelical preaching, and one thousand 
one hundred and fifty-two full members of the 
Reformed Nestorian Church (principal points, 
Ooroomiah and Seir). 'Eighteen ordained native 
pastors, forty-five preachers, and ninety-nine teach¬ 
ers and other helpers, now publish the glad tidings 
of the gospel in about ninety-six places; twenty- 
three of the old churches are used by the Prot¬ 
estant congregations, who now have a constitu¬ 
tion with presbyteries and synods. There are one 


146 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


thousand six hundred and forty-three scholars in 
• eighty-seven day-schools, and thirty-three young 
men preparing for the ministry4 Also among the 
Persians themselves, Protestant missions appear to 
be gaining a firmer foothold, and here, under a 
tolerant form of Islam, are able sooner to win an 
entrance among the IMohammedans. The Ameri¬ 
can Presbyterians have stations and small congre¬ 
gations of twenty or thirty members in Tabriz, 
Teheran, and Hamadan. In Ispahan the Church 
JMissionary Society has a missionary (and shortly 
will have a medical missionary), ten native teach¬ 
ers, a hundred and forty-seven church-members, 
two schools, and two hundred and four scholars. 
To be sure, these have almost all been won from 
among the native Christians, but the Mohamme¬ 
dans are also inquiring the way of salvation4 

The most productive, however, are the Moslem 
missions in certain parts of India, as in the central 
provinces and the Punjab. Here are some of the 
best native Christians in the mission churches, 
composed of converts from Islamism. There may 
be, all told, in Northern India three hundred,^ 
among whom are not only certain noted magis¬ 
trates, but also some excellent and celebrated 

1 See Evangeliscbes Mission.-Magazin, 1872, p. 31, sqq.; Re¬ 
port of tlie American Presbyterian Missions, 1871), p. 42, sqq. 

2 Abstract of tbe Cliurcb Missionary Society’s Report, 1870, 
p. 9; Report of American Presbyterian mission, 1879, p. 47, sqq. 

3 According to tbe missionary IMr. Hughes of Pesbawur, 
Mildmay Conference, p. 328, sqq. 


VALUE OF THE MISSIONARY PRESS. 147 


evangelists and ordained preachers. Elsewhere, 
as in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the conver¬ 
sion of a Moslem is still considered a wonder. 
The gospel has also pressed forward, not without 
good truit to the Afghans, who have recently come 
before us so much through the Church Missionary 
Society, especially at Peshawur. There is in this 
city to-day a church with ninety converted Mo¬ 
hammedans,^ in connection with the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society. Already before the war it had 
established numerous stations among them, and 
sent thither a missionary physician.^ Tliey pos¬ 
sess a good translation of the New Testament into 
l^ushtu, and other Pushtu literature is being 
formed. A few gleams of gospel light have pene¬ 
trated toward Cashmere, especially through the 
work of a medical missionary. Through the pro¬ 
gressive dismemberment of the political sphere of 
the ])Ower of Islam, many educated Mohammedans 
are beginning, as the missionaries expected, to .lose 
their hope for the future of Islam, although, on 
account of external considerations, they may with- 
liold proof of tliis.^ Mohammedanism is really a 
political system. As soon as its adherents cease 

1 See Milclmay Conference, p. 385. 

2 Hughes (see above), p. 345. 

3 According to accounts by the mission secretary, Mr. Jen¬ 
kins, Mildmay Conference, p. 104, sqq. Man.y English mission¬ 
aries in the Punjab, as lately one of them told me, consider 
Hindooism as “a far greater and more serious masterpiece of 
Satan ” than Islam. 



148 PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


to have political relations, the contest between the 
Bible and the Koran will be waged on an equal 
footing. The weapons for this are prepared. The 
translation of the Bible into Arabic, the universal 
sacred language of the Mohammedans, completed 
in 1865, will be everywhere understood. This 
translation is already widel}^ scattered among the 
Mohammedans by the British and American Bible 
Societies, from Tunis and Morocco through all 
North Africa and far up the Nile ; from Constanti¬ 
nople, Asia INlinor, and Syria to the north-western 
provinces of China (where there are a number of 
millions of IMohammedans) ; even the sheiks on 
the Arabian and East African coasts receive it 
eagerly.! 

The whole Bible or the New Testament is trans¬ 
lated also into the other principal languages of the 
Turkish Empire,^ — the Turkish, Armenian, Bul¬ 
garian, Syrian, Kurdish, Persian, &c. Although 
at times the gospel cannot be openly preached to 
the Turks in public meetings, yet everywhere 
they come more or less in small groups to hear it.^ 
ITence the rule, for example, in the American 
missions, of holding at least one service every 
sabbath in Turkish. And this leaven is working. 

1 According to Dr. Jessup, Mildmaj" Conference, p. 364, sqq. 

2 See Dr. Jessup, meeting of the New York Alliance, p. 640, 
sqq. 

3 Cf., e.g., the account of the consecration of the beautiful new 
church in C.'esarea : Missionary Herald, Boston, February, 1870, 

p. 60. 


VALUE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS. 


140 


Already there is scarcely a city, vijlage, or ham¬ 
let ill Asiatic Turkey, where there is not at least 
one copy of the Bible.^ The publications of the 
Protestant missionary presses surpass all others in 
number; and this is a most encouraging fact, that 
the superiority of the Protestant religion over the 
picture-worshipping churches is more and more 
generally recognized by the I\Iohammedans. 44 ie 
Turkish contempt for Christianity is at least 
beginning to cease everywhere. Through the 
self-sacrificing work of love by the American male 
and female missionaries among the sick and starv¬ 
ing, during the Turko-Russian war in Asia Minor 
and Europe, faith in Protestant missions has 
sprung up in many places, and the lies and calum¬ 
niations of the semi-heathen priests and monks are 
hurled back upon themselves, so that numerous 
doors previously locked to our missions have been 
opened. Expressions like these, “ Piotestants do 
not lie,” “You can trust Protestants,” — which one 
may hear even among the mountains of the wild 
Kurds, where a short time ago a man plundering 
a Protestant stopped short with the words, “ I can 
believe 3 ^ 011 : you are a Protestant,” ^ — witness 
stronger than all else to the growing moral influ¬ 
ence of Protestant missions. They also come as 

1 According to accounts of Dr. Bliss, Mildmay Conference, 
p. 631, sqq. 

2 According to Dr. Clark, The Gospel in the Ottoman Empire, 



150 PEOTESTANT rOEEIGN MISSIONS : 


ail especially great blessing to the enslaved 
women. Tlieir moral and social elevation, wliicli 
is constantly advanced tlirongli Christian instruc¬ 
tion, prayer, meetings for Bible-study, and a great 
number of institutions for the higher education of 
women,! is a fruit of missions of so great worth, 
that it alone will justify all endeavors up to the 
present time. IVe have also, as is more and more 
clearly seen, in the medical missions a great key 
to the homes of the Moslems, who at least reofard 
Jesus as a great Helper and Healer. This branch 
of missions has proved especially effective for the 
lands of Islam 

Protestant missions are better prepared through' 
all this than ever before, to pi-osecute the work 
of evangelization in greater compass, not simply 
among the Cliristians of Oriental nations, but also 
among the Moslems. With the breaking-up of 
the political power, with the evident bankruptcy 
of the lazy, internal government of the Ottoman 
Empire, and the disappearance of prejudice against 
Protestantism ; with the growing influence of the 
evangelical leaven, — we cannot longer consider 
the mission work among these nations as hopeless, 
notwithstanding all the external barriers and hin- 
derances, even if it be true, which is openly con- 

1 In Constantinople, Samakov, Brusa, Manisa, Marsovan, 
Aintal), Marasli, Harpoot, Mardin, the American Board has such 
institutions. See Clark, p. 8, s^qq. 

2 See :Medical Missions, October, 1878, p. 29; Hughes (see 
above), p. 332. 


IN INDIA. 


. 151 


fessed ^ by missionaries, that they had formerly 
under-estimated this opposer, who to-day displays 
a propagating zeal.^ How great will be the influ¬ 
ence upon Mohammedan nations, when not simply 
little groups of scattered Protestants, but large 
Protestant districts, come in contact with them, 
for example, in Armenia, Persia, also in India, and' 
Sumatra (Sinkel district), and elsewhere, we can¬ 
not as yet rightly estimate. 

X. Witli India we enter the chief scene of Prot¬ 
estant mission work, upon which, as upon no other, 
it has concentrated its numerous and most power¬ 
ful agencies from all sides in order to make a gen¬ 
eral assault against the chief bulwark of darkness, 
Hindooism. Now that whole races of people and 
systems of territory have passed from the hands 
of a company hostile to missions, to the British 
crown, there is opportunity for greater freedom of 
action. Twenty-nine evangelical missionary soci¬ 
eties, among them almost without exception all 
the larger ones, with about six hundred ordained 
European and American missionaries, divided 
among at least four hundred and thirty central 
stations, are engaged here in a trying work. 
There are on an average two missionaries for 
every million iidiabitants. This is a good iium- 

1 See Hughes, p. 330. 

2 e.g., the Waluibis in Arabia, and the disciples of the fanati- . 
cal Saiyid Ahmed in India, and specially the Mohammedan prop¬ 
aganda in the western provinces of China. See Evangel. Mis¬ 
sion.-Magazin, 1874, p. 77, sqq. 


152 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


ber, but still far too small. The ever-increasiug 
harvests of the fruits of tlie missions of India in 
the last decade are shoAvn by the following figures. 
In 1852 there were in British India (including 
Burmah and -Ceylon) twenty-two thousand and 
four hundred communicants, or one hundred and 
twenty-eight thousand native nominal Christians 
young and old; 1862, forty-nine thousand six 
hundred and eighty-one communicants, and two 
hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and 
eighty-two nominal Christians; 1872, seventy-eight 
thousand four hundred and ninety-four communi¬ 
cants, three hundred and eighteen thousand three 
hundred and sixty-three nominal Christians; but 
in 1878 the number of the latter rose to four hun¬ 
dred and sixty thousand.^ If we take simply India 
proper, there appears from 1851-61 an increase in 
native evangelical Christians of about fifty-three 
per cent; from 1861-71, an increase of sixty-one 
per cent (from one hundred and thirty-eight thou¬ 
sand seven hundred and thirty-one Cliristians to 
two hundred and twenty-four thousand two hun¬ 
dred and fifty-eight 2), which will make a much 
swifter advance in our decade.^ 

1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 85 ; CLurcli Mis¬ 
sionary Intelligencer, 1878, p. 537 ; and Mildmay Conference, 1878, 
p. 120, sgq. 

2 Cf. Evangel. Mission.-Magazin, 1873, p. 255; Chronicle of the 
London Missionary Society, 1874, p. 4G, sgq. The difference 
between the numbers given above arises from the omission of 
Further India. 

8 It has been calculated that at this rate of progression there 


GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 


153 


If we examine the different sects as to their 
share in this increase, we find that the five Luther¬ 
an missionary societies which work in India — the 
Leipzig, the Gossner, the Danish, the Ilermanns- 
burg and the American Lutheran — have advanced 
together since 1850, from three thousand three 
hundred and sixteen to about forty-two thousand 
Christians; two American and one English Baptist 
societies together, from thirty thousand to ninety 
thousand (including Burmah); the Basel mission 
in India, from about one thousand to six thousand 
eight hundred and five; ^ the ten Presbyterian mis¬ 
sions of Scotland, England, Ireland, and America, 
from eight hundred to ten thousand; in a similar 
manner the two Wesleyan Societies from England 
and America, which have only worked there a 
short time: The London Missionary Society, from 
about twenty thousand to now over forty-eight 
thousand; the Church Missionary and Propaga¬ 
tion Societies together, from sixty-one thousand 
four hundred and forty-two to over one hundred 
and sixty-four thousand.^ We must add to these 
some smaller and many private missions, which are 
especially numerous in India. 

In certain places the development was particu¬ 
larly sudden and unequal; at first very little, then 

vShoiild be, about the year 1901, upwards of a million, and in the 
year 2000, about one hundred and thirty-eight millions, of Prot¬ 
estant Christians in India. 

1 Ileidenbote, August, 1879, p. 59. 

2 According to Sherring, IMildmay Conference, p. 121, sqq. 


154 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


all at once a great increase of fruit, for nowhere 
lias the development been so spasmodic as in 
many Indian missions. At Cuddapah, for example 
(Telngn district), the London and Propagation 
Societies worked side by side for thirty years, 
without gaining together more than two hundred 
converts; then suddenly there Avas a revival among 
the tribes of that region which had broken loose 
from the system of caste, and now the two hun¬ 
dred have become nearly eleven thousand. What 
a hard field for the Basel missionaries during the 
last twenty-seven years has South jNIahratta been! 
so unfruitful that many thought seriously of giv¬ 
ing up the district. Now, suddenly after the 
3 -ears of famine come 3 ^ears of rich harvest, and 
the numlier of Christians in the Basel missions 
has increased over a thousand. How different in 
the Gossner mission among the Kohls ! After five 
3 ^ears of waiting the first baptisms Avere in 1850, 
then the number increased from 3 ^ear to year; 
18G0, fourteen hundred Christians; in 1870, more 
than tAvelve thousand; and to-day in their German 
and English branches together, there are aliout 
fort}’ thousand baptized converts. The increase 
of neAV converts during the last tAvo 3 ^ears in a 
number of societies Avas greater than ever before 
heard of in the Avhole histor}" of Indian missions; 
and this shoAvs the chief ground for the present 
condition of the Avork in that land, — the previous 
terrible famine in Southern India,^ and the experi- 


GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 


155 


ence of tlie powerlessness of their gods to help 
tliem in this trouble. 

Ihe clear proof of the absolute superiority of 
Christian mercy over heathen selfishness, which 
hundreds of thousands of heathen had presented 
daily before their eyes, through the aid of tlje 
government, of Christians in England, and of tlie 
missionary society; the marked difference between 
the heartless heathen priests and the Christian mis¬ 
sionaries stinting themselves ; together with the 
influence of much evangelistic work, which ])re- 
cisely in Southern India was greater toward the 
heathen than an 3 ^where else on the part of Euro¬ 
pean preachers and teachers, — these were the 
recognized means in Cod’s hands of letting thou- 
saiids upon thousa’nds of lieatheii know at once^ a 
little of the divine in Cliristianit}^ so that tliey 
became anxious for its light and salvation. The 
Easel mission gathered in a harvest greater than 
ever before (1877, increase, one thousand and 
seventy-six; 1878, seven hundred and sixty-eight 


1 Accordin" to the Times, there perished in tlie Presidency 
of Madras 3,000,000 persons; in Mysore, 1,250,000; in Bombay, 
1,000,000. Four million dollars were sent from England to give 
relief to the sufferers. 

2 Heathen have been heard to say, writes a native jireacher 
from Madras, “ We can understand Christians giving syrnjiathy 
and help to their fellow-Christians in time of need, hut it is 
indeed wonderful that they should show such great and noble 
compassion to the heathen! There must, indeed, he a mighty 
power in their religion! ” Allgemeine evangelische lutherische 
Kircheu-Zeitung, supplement, 1879. 


156 PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


souls ^). The same for the Leipzig Socfety (1878, 
one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine baptized 
heathen; that is almost twice as many as in 1877), 
and so with most all the societies working in 
Southern India. But it is without parallel that 
the American Baptists baptized in one and a half 
months (the 16th of June to the 31st of July, 
1878) eight thousand six hundred and ninety- 
one^ heathen in Nellore; that in the Tinnevelly 
districts of the Church Mission Society, in 1878, 
eleven thousand heathen came to Bishop Sargent 
and the native pastors for instruction previous to 
baptism ; ^ and that, in the same districts of the 
Church Propagation Society, from July, 1877, to 
the end of June, 1879, twenty-three thousand five 
hundred and sixty-four person’s asked Christian 
instruction of Bishop Caldwell and his co-laborers ; 
so that the xVnglican Cliurch mission in Tinnevelly 
and Ramanath (south-east point), in scarcely one 
and a half years, received an increase of nearly 
thirty-five thousand souls,^ while until that time 
the increase of the Propagation Society and Church 
Mission Society in Tinnevelly and Travancore to¬ 
gether had only averaged from two to three thou¬ 
sand souls per year. Now Christianity has* been 
spread in tlie Tinnevelly district of the Propaga- 

1 See Annual Eeport, 1878, p. 31; Ileidenbote, 1879, p. 59. 

2 Slierring, ibid., p. 123. 

3 Abstract of the Clmrcli Missionary Society’s Eei)ort, 1879, 
p. 13. 

4 Eeport of the Propagation Society, 1879, ji. 31, sqq. 


GKEAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 


157 


tion Society alone into six hundred and thirty-one 
villages. This great number is not wholly com¬ 
posed of real converts, but partly of those who 
are receiving instruction previous to baptism; yet 
they are also not bread-seekers, — “ rice - Chris¬ 
tians,” but the awakened, who, on account of their 
connection with Christian churches, must still suf¬ 
fer many persecutions.^ The movement extends 
itself (and this shows its depth) not only among 
the lieathen, but also among the native Christians; 
many of whom, now filled with a living zeal, 
devote themselves, unpaid, for the evangelization 
of those newly awakened.^ If we combine with 
these results in the South those in the other Indian 
missions, especially among the Kohls (about three 
thousand per year), the Santals, the Karens in 
Burmah, Pegu, &c., the total increase in the 
Indian missions in 1878 will reach from fifty to 
sixty thousand souls, whilst in other years it only 
averaged from six to ten thousand. If we con¬ 
sider for a moment the above total of Protestant 
Cliristians in India (four to five hundred thou¬ 
sand), as to their distribution in particular parts 
of the country, we shall see extraordinary differ¬ 
ences. The great mass is in the South; Madras 
Presidency is the first, with two hundred thou¬ 
sand Christians. Here the Propagation Society 

1 Report of Propagation Society, 1879, p. 33. 

2 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society’s Report, 1879, 


158 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS; 

has besides twenty thousand seven hundred and 
forty-six catechumens, thirty-two thousand three 
hundred and ninety-eight baptized Christians, and 
from thirteen to fourteen thousand children under 
instruction in three hundred day schools, in which 
forty-eight missionaries, one hundred and ninety- 
five native catechists, three hundred and ninety- 
four native teachers and Bible-readers, are at wmrkd 
The Church Missionary Society has seventy-seven 
thousand six hundred and fifty native Christians 
(fifteen thousand one hundred and ten communi¬ 
cants), six hundred and eighty-six seminaries 
and schools, with twelve thousand five hundred 
and twenty-three scholars, in which thirty-two 
European missionaries, eighty-one native ordained 
ministers, and one thousand and ninety - six 
native catechists and teachers laborNearly 
half the Madras Christians belon^’ to these two 

O 

societies. The other half is divided between 
the London jMissionary Society, which has many 
self-supporting churches in Telugu, Salem, Trav- 
ancore, and other districts; the American Board, 
which has in its Madura mission of thirty-two 
congregations eight thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-seven persons in charge ; ^ the American 
Baptists, with twelve thousand baptized converts 
in their Nellore mission ; the Leipzig Society, with 

1 Propagation Society’s Report, 1879, pp. 16, 17. 

2 Abstract of the Ch. IMiss. Society’s Report, 1880, j). 15. 

3 Report of the American Board, 1878, p. 73. 


GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 


159 


ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-two 
Christians in eighteen central stations, and one 
hundred and five schools with two thousand one 
hundred and ninety-six scholars; ^ the Basel So¬ 
ciety, Avith six thousand eight liundred and five 
nieinbers, Avhich, with twenty stations, including 
tlie four in South IMahratta belonging to the Presi¬ 
dency of Bombay, has here its chief field of labor, 
sixty-three missionaries, seventy-two native dea¬ 
cons, catechists, and evangelists, fifty-five teach¬ 
ers, sixty-two high and common schools with two 
thousand six hundred and fifty-four scholars, of 
Avhom nineteen are in the theological seminaries; ^ 
the London Wesleyan (Madras and Mysore dis¬ 
trict), the Reformed (Dutch) and Methodist-Epis¬ 
copal Church of America, the Scotch State and 
Free Churches, the Danish and^Ilermannsburg So¬ 
cieties, and others. Upon Ceylon, over the greater 
part of which Buddhism casts its deadly shade, 
Ave find Protestant missions sloAAdy rising out of 
the ruins of the old Dutch mission Avith its hun¬ 
dreds of tliousands of “government Christians,” 
Avho quickly relapsed into Buddhism. To-day the 
number of native Christians is perhaps more than 
thirty-tAvo thousand. The deplorable strife be¬ 
tween the ritualistic bishops and the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society is only gradually ceasing. Near 

1 AllsreniBine evcincrclisclie liitliorisclio Ivii’clicn-Zcitung, .Tune 
13, 1879, p. 554, sqq. 

2 See the tables in the Annual Report, 1878, p. 28, sqq. 


160 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


the latter, with their eleven stations, six thousand 
six hundred and ninety-five native Christians, 
and ten thousand four hundred and thirteen 
scholars, we find the Propagation -Society with 
fifteen stations and six to seven thousand church- 
111 embers; the Wesleyans in the southern district 
(Singhalese) with forty-eight stations, two tliou- 
saiid and twenty -one; and in the northern dis¬ 
trict (Tam111), with twenty-six stations and eight 
liiiiidred and six full memhers. Farther, the 
American Board, with seven stations and eight 
to nine hundred adult members, seven thousand 
two hundred and ninety-one scholars; ^ and the 
Englisli Bajitists, with twenty-four stations, eight 
hundred to one thousand members, and twenty- 
four hundred scholars. Next to Southern India 
the most productive field is Burinah, where tlie 
American Baptist mission, partly among the less 
accessible Buddhist Burmese, partly and particu¬ 
larly among their enslaved and more barbarous 
Karens, carry on one of the most fruitful Protes¬ 
tant missions, whose sudden extension is especially 
due to native agencies and excellent national 
help. In 1878, at the celebration of the fiftieth 
year of jubilee of the foundation of this mission, 
a beautiful liall was dedicated^ as a memorial of 

1 According to the last annual reiiorts of the Propagation 
Society, Church Missionary Society, Wesleyan IMissionary So¬ 
ciety, and the American Board. 

2 Eppler, Die neuere Entwickelung der Karenenmission: All- 
' gemeine Missions Zeitschrift, August, 1878, p. 350. 


IN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 


161 


the society, to the memory of the indefatigable 
Ko-Tha-Byu, who, as the first fruit of this mission, 
entered its service fifty years before. The present 
condition of the Baptist mission in Biirmah in the 
districts of Rangoon, Maulmain, and Toungoo, 
shows eight 3 -three missionaries, one hundred 
ordained native ministers, three hundred helpers, 

- about two hundred and seventy schools, twelve 
institutes for higher education, four hundred and 
forty congregations, of which eighty are ministered 
to by ordained native preachers, twenty thousand 
eight hundred and eleven ^ communicants, and 
about seventy thousand native Christians, one 
thousand three hundred and nine baptized in 1879. 

Already these churches bear more than half the 
expenses of all the churches, schools, and mission 
stations in this land. The mission of the Propa¬ 
gation Society, wliich seems especiall}^ to have 
gained the attention of the Burmese, has estab¬ 
lished many schools on the Irrawadi, and has 
penetrated up the Rangoon and bej^ond British 
districts toward Mandelay into the open country 
of Burmah. We find Bengal and the North-west 
Provinces to be the third and almost equally pro¬ 
ductive district, the number of converted natives 
being now more than sixty thousand. The prin- 
|Cipal part of these belong to the Gossner mission 

1 According to account of Rev. Dr. Murdoch, Mildmay Con¬ 
ference, p. 193, sqq.; cf., too, Missionary Herald (Boston), May, 
1878, p. 169, and Cahv. Mission.-Magazin, 1879, p. 43. 



162 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 

in Cliota Nagpore, among the aboriginal tribes of 
Kobls. There are about thirty thousand baptized 
converts in seven districts, under only thirteen 
* missionaries, six native ministers, fifteen candi¬ 
dates, two hundred teachers and catechists (in 
three stations on the Ganges, with about one thou¬ 
sand Christians), and a yearly increase of over 
two thousand catechumens ^ (at present three to 
four thousand) ; added to these is the Anglican 
mission in connection with the Propagation So¬ 
ciety, with about ten thousand Christians. Then 
follows the much-promising Saiital mission, also 
among tlie aborigines, established by two (for¬ 
merly Gossner) independent missionaries from Nor¬ 
way and Denmark (connected in some resiiects 
with the Danish mission, Skrefsrud and Porresen), 
who are noAV aided by thirty native pastors, and 
have suddenly increased the number of their con¬ 
verts to five or six thousand. Among them are 
two thousand two hundred and sixt 3 ^-four commu¬ 
nicants (in 1877), thirty congregations with elders, 
and forty schools the Church Missionary Soci¬ 
ety also working among them with English and 
native preachers. They complain lately of the 
progress of a process of Hindooizing, among this 
people. 

1 According to the statistics for 1877-78, there were 24,313 
baptized converts, 7,498 coniraunicants, with 2,223 catechumens, 
and seventy-one schools with 1,395 children. See Plath, The 
Gossner Mission among the Hindoos and Kohls, 1879, p. 285. 

2 Das Evangel in Santalistan, Basel, 1878, p. 42, sqq. 


INDIA. 


163 


We cannot follow in particular the many other 
English, Scotch, and American missions which 
are found onward from Calcutta, where alone 
eight societies labor, all along the valley of the 
Ganges, in every important cit}^ The many 
congregations in Calcutta are small, and grow 
slowly. Whoever comes from Southern India, or 
descends from the Kohl mountains into the Ganges 
plain, will be conscious of the fact that he is in a 
much harder mission field. Here the old for¬ 
tresses of Hindooism and ^lohammedanism in 
Benares, Allahabad, Delhi, &c., still continue to 
defy the gospel. 

The Church Missionary Society has the most 
extensive mission here, namely, thirty-two sta¬ 
tions, thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty- 
three native Christians, forty-one missionaries, and 
seventeen native pastors; fourteen thousand one 
hundred and sixteen scholars in two hundred and 
sixty-five seminaries and schools, with five hun¬ 
dred and fifteen native teachers.^ 

Then the English Baptist, London, American 
Presbyterian, and Methodist Episcopal, Propaga¬ 
tion, Scotch State and Free Church, Wesleyan and 
American Baptist Societies, and others. The mis¬ 
sion in the Pinijab and Sindh is making rapid 
progress, particularly through the Church JMission- 
ary Society, which has even built a theological 

1 Al)stract of the Church Missionary Society’s Report, 1880, 
p. 11. 





164 


PPtOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS : 


seminary in Lahore for converted Hindoos, Sikhs, 
and Mohammedans, which is doing good work. 
We have already noticed that the gospel from 
here has forced its way over Peshav/ur to Afghan¬ 
istan and Cashmere. 

This same society has here, in thirteen stations 
with twenty-three missionaries and seven native 
preachers, one thousand four hundred and ninety 
native Christians, and fifty-four schools with 
three thousand four hundred and ninety-two 
scholars.! The American Presbyterian (with the 
centre at Lodiana 2), and the United Presbyterian 
and Scotch State Church, are also at work in this 
field. 

If we look now toward the West Coast, we shall 
see that the. wide tract of Rajpootana is but 
slightly occupied by Protestant missions. Sepa¬ 
rated from all others, the Scotch United Presbyte¬ 
rian Church is working here alone, with nine mis¬ 
sionaries and four missionary physicians in eight 
central stations, with two hundred and seventy- 
three communicants, ninety-four schools, and 

three thousand four hundred and fifty-three 

\ 

scholars.^ The capital, Bombay, and the central 

1 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society’s Report, p. 12. 
Tn 1872-73, there were only 552 baptized converts, and 2,800 
scholars. 

2 In the Lodiana mission there are thirteen congregations 
with 318 communicants; in the Furruckabad mission, eight con- 
gi’('gations with 318 communicants; and together, upwards of 
7.000 scholars in the day schools. Report, 1879, pp. 52-54. 

3 Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, 
June, 1879, p. 527. 


INDIA. 


165 


provinces show that parts ai*e hut sparsely occu¬ 
pied, and parts are the most unfruitful of all the 
Indian mission fields. The total number of native 
Christians here is not over seven thousand ; nine 
hundred and ninety-nine of these belong to the 
five stations of the Church INIissionary Society, 
whose missionaries tell us that recently there has 
been a great demand for the Bible in Bombay.^ 
The Mahratta mission of the American Board is 
but little stronger, having gathered in five central 
stations and many out-stations, 1,127 adult mem- 
' bers in twenty-three congregations, under ten mis¬ 
sionaries and seventeen native pastors. The}" also 
instruct 827 scholars in 48 schools.^ The four 
stations of the Propagation Society appear to con¬ 
tain not more than six or seven thousand church- 
members;^ the four stations of the Free Church 
of Scotland, not more than nine hundred, with 
over twenty-two hundred scholars.^ Others have 
fewer, — for example, the American Methodist 
Episcopal Church, four or five hundred. On the 
other hand, the Basel South Mahratta mission has 
increased to one thousand and fifty-seven church-. 
members. In the central provinces, the Scotch 
Free Church has made some small beginnings in 
Nagpore and among the Ghonds; likewise the 

1 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society’s Report, 1880, 
p. 14; 19 schools, with 1,012 scholars. 

2 Report of the American Board, 1879, p. 41. 

8 Report, 1879, p. 17. 

^ Report of Foreign Missions, 1877, p. 64, sqq. 


1G6 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


German Evangelical Society of America, and the 
Swedish Fosterland Institute, which has most re¬ 
cently occupied Karsingpore and Sagar with four 
missionaries,^ and has now two missionaries among 
the Ghonds also. The only other mission to be 
noticed’ here is that of the General Baptists in 
Orissa (East Coast), with six stations and about 
one thousand communicants,^ and that of the INIo- 
ravians in the Western Himalaya (two stations 
with thirty-four native Christians), the advanced 
posts of Protestantism to the doors of Thibet. 

XI. If we examine the total number of converts, 
not according to provinces, but according to their 
castes and degrees of education, we perceive certain 
very characteristic facts to aid our judgment as 
to results in India up to the present time. Five- 
sixths of the converts in all Indian missions be¬ 
long to the lower classes of society, of inferior 
castes and of no caste.^ Converted Brahmins are 
found everywhere, but their number is still very 
small. This, therefore, is clear: the black abo¬ 
riginal tribes with their pre-Brahminical devil- 
worship, and the semi-Brahminism of Southern 
India, this compound of the Brahminic religion 
with that of the aboriginals, are much more acces¬ 
sible to the gospel than the Brahmins proper in 

1 Missions-Tednmg, May, 1879. 

2 On an average. 

3 Sherring, see above, p. 118. 


UNDERMINING HINDOOISM. 


167 


the North. And, what is remarkable, these two 
most fruitful branches of the great missionary tree 
are related to each other in their languages. 
There are j)eople of the Dravidian languages, 
stretching from Malay, Tamil, Telngu, &c., to 
Kola and Santal,^ opposed to whom Brahmin Hin- 
dooism stands with its Aryan languages. From 
this we perceive, that within this old civilized land 
the tribes and classes of j)eople which are relative¬ 
ly least penetrated by heathen civilization are the 
most accessible to Christianity; while the real 
stronghold of the Hindoo religion and culture, the 
North with its Benares, and the higher, more edu¬ 
cated castes and lighter races of India generally, 
as a strong fortress still defy it, and, though be¬ 
sieged, are far from conquered. 

But the process of undermining is in full prog¬ 
ress, which in time must lead to their downfall, 
though we may not be able as yet to tell when 
that time will come. The axe of the gospel with a 
handle out of the tree of Hindooism itself, wielded 
by native agencies, will bring about this fall, as 
the thoughtful Hindoos now already jierceive and 
openly confess. “After all, what did the Mo¬ 
hammedans do?” said a Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt.^ 
“ They broke down a few bricks from the top of 

1 See the map of Indian languages in Grundemann’s Gen¬ 
eral Atlas of Missions, Asia, No. VI., and Monier Williams’s map 
of Hindooism, London, 1877. 

2 Leupolt, Recollections of an Indian Missionary, in the 
Church Mission. Intell., 1878-9. 


168 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


the lioiise: tliese men (the missionaries) under¬ 
mine its foundation by preaching and teaching, 
and, when once a great rain comes, the whole 
building will come doAvn with a crash.” The 
power which holds it together has long ceased to 
be the religious system itself Avith its iinvard Avan- 
derings; nor yet are the old and neAV literatures 
as such, with their many-colored compounds of 
old pious prayers, fantastical speculations, absurd' 
and often terrible injunctions, composed of pan¬ 
theistic, polytheistic, and even theistic elements, 
the poAver of heathen faith and thought; but the 
caste-system. As a system, Hindooism is becom¬ 
ing more and more a relic.^ It loses daily more 
of its influence over the spirit of the people. 
Polytheistic superstition is already overcome in 
the minds of the educated, although it has still 
many tenacious roots in the minds of the common 
people. The youth of India are AvithdraAving con¬ 
tinually from its influences. But caste holds the 
old building fast together: even liberals seldom 
have courage to break with it. “ You knoAv,” said 
an accomplished Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt, “that, 
properly speaking, we have now no religious be¬ 
lief. Any one can believe A^iat he likes, so long 
as he retains caste.” In fact, Hindooism only 
clings to caste still, because caste in turn supports 
it. So much the more decisiA^ely must this ,^caste 
be fought; for, if this be undermined, the Avhole 

\ Cf., too, Jenkins, Mildmay Conference, p. 1G5. 


UNDERINIINING IIINDOOISM. 


1G9 


religious edifice will fall in. That this great social 
fetter of the Hindoos must he broken off, there is 
no dispute among the evangelical missionaiy socie¬ 
ties. But whether it is only to be continually 
restricted by those wlio are converted, and left to 
die out through the freeing activity of the evan¬ 
gelical spirit, or whether it is to be directly 
attacked, and a complete separation be demanded 
from the beginning of every one baptized, is the 
question. 

In regard to this, the opinions of some, particu¬ 
larly of the Leipzig men, disagree with the ma¬ 
jority. AVithout expecting in the least to solve 
this intricate and much-discussed (question with a 
few general remarks, I still confess that I must 
hold the former practice as dangerous, because 
incompatible with a clear, proper execution of fun¬ 
damental Christian ideas. And I have lately been 
much strengthened in this pt)sitidn by the article of 
Professor Monier Williams, of Oxford, an unbiased 
observer, upon “ iModern India and the Indians 
(1879). He says, “It is difficult for us Europe¬ 
ans to understand how the pride of caste, as a 
divine ordinance, interpenetrates the whole being 
of a Hindoo. He looks upon his caste as Ins verita- 
hie god; and those caste-rules which we believe to 
be a hinderance to his adoption of the true reli- 
‘ gion are to him the very essence of all religion, for 
they influence his whole life and conduoi. One 
can fully acknowledge certain good services once 



170 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


accomplislied by the caste laws of India, for exam¬ 
ple, protection against complete lawlessness; but 
these are far overbalanced, as Professor Williams 
shows, by tlie irreparable harm they bring to the 
physical, spiritual, and moral condition of the 
Hindoo people, by making marriage in early youth 
a religious duty, by the fetter of endogamy (mar¬ 
riage only within the caste, yea, within special di¬ 
visions), by fencing in the family and home life 
with a wall of mysteries. 

Go into the upper classes of the high schools in 
India, and you will find that half the boys are 
themselves already fathers! I ask: Do we not 
here front the explanation of the effeminacy of 
so many millions in India? Will not the children 
of children remain children throughout their whole 
life ? and what is the cause of the childish char¬ 
acter of the Indian women ? Their awful exclusion 
' through the caste-laws. Nothing can help in this 
but an entirel}^ new ideal of womanhood, a com¬ 
plete renovation of the whole family life, through 
the emancipation of women from their prison- 
homes, yea, through a re-organization of the wiiole 
social building, from the foundation up.i There¬ 
fore eradicate caste, this taproot of the social evils 

1 It is a matter of thankfulness that the question of children’s 
marriages is in India becoming the subject of imhlic controversy. 
Already a distinguished native Christian lawyer has declared 
that he will devote his life and strength to their abolishment. 
See Mrs. VTeithrecht, The Women of India, p. 11. May God 
bless his endeavors ! 


CASTE MUST GIVE WAY. 


171 


of India, and, I must say, the more thoroughly the 
better! 

Not only in order to clear away the chief hin- 
derance to the gospel in India, but also on account 
of the moral well-being of her one hundred and 
seventy millions of inhabitants, must this be done. 
A two-thousand-year-old evil will easily sprout 
up again unless its roots are dug out, to their ex¬ 
tremities. Even recently they were seeking to 
revive caste among the Christians of Krishnagur, 
until the Church Missionary Society mowed down 
the springing tare by stringent discipline. That 
was, without doubt, managed rightly. A mild 
practice toward caste, which at- any time may 
easily become a source of calamitous strife, — as 
already under Schwartz,^ and even in more recent 
times, — may have the effect, as is feared ^ by 
some, who point to the case of the Romish Church, 
of increasing the number of Christians for the 
time being, but this increase will be followed by 
the complete stagnation of the inner life of the 
Church. 

May all Protestant missions soon agree as one 
man, to the mode of dealing with caste, and leave 
even the slightest indulgence in it to the Rom¬ 
ish Church I In order to do this, it seems to us 
necessary before all else, that, in this eminently 

1 The famous German missionary in Tranquebar, 1798. 

2 See the valuable article, Ou Caste and Christian Missions, 
Church Missionary Intelligencer, March, 1879, p. 129, sqq. 


172 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


practical question, one should not take advice 
from men educated simply in their studies, who 
judge from afar and from an exclusively historical 
point of view, but from those who have formed 
their opinions from personal observation and ex¬ 
perience under the conditions of the work as they 
now exist. Then there will be a better prospect, 
that in time there will be uni tv at least in the 
mode of dealing with this matter. 

This great power in the social life of India be¬ 
gins to give way already here and there, though 
slowly. The contact with Christian civilization 
and morality, “the general extension of even a 
mere superficial knowledge of Christianity, is,” as 
Sir Bartle Frere says, “the death-knell of caste. 
Generations may pass before the result is attained, 
but finally there can be no doubt of it.” Already 
now and then there is a widow who marries ao-ain, 
with the applause of the young Indians. Even the 
railroad will be a sworn ally in the war against 
caste. Hindooism cannot accommodate itself to 
the progress of modern times, and therefore every 
thing works together for its destruction as a sys¬ 
tem. Reformed social ideas and customs make 
themselves felt involuntarily, wherever Hindoos 
are opposed to Christian family life; and caste 
will appear to them by degrees in its terrible un¬ 
natural limits, as anachronism. Because felt as a 
burden it will no longer be observed so closely; 
and with broken caste, the priests, in order not to 


SHOr.T-SIGHTEDNESS OF THE STATE. 173 


lose all, will do every thing in their power to 
facilitate restoration. 

, XII. The enlightening influences of the schools 
also contribute much to the discrediting of idola¬ 
try as well as to the undermining of the caste 
system; and, indeed, not only the schools of the 
missions, but also* those of the Indian government.^ 
We must deplore the fact, however, that all reli¬ 
gious instruction, and even tlie Bible, is* by law 
excluded from the public schools, both lower and 
higher, but it is unfair to consider them as directly 
hostile .to missions. They work for Christianity 
at least by uprooting a mass of heathen preju¬ 
dices. Yet it is a circumstance to be deplored 
in the highest degree, that in the government 
schools here and there, through the influence of 
rationalistic instructors, a positive anti-Christian 
spirit appears, and that scepticism towards all 
positive religion is directly promoted. The belief 
of students in the absurdities of the Hindoo cos¬ 
mogony will be overthrown ; but, because Chris¬ 
tianity cannot be put in its place, tbeir scepticism 
is easily carried over to the Bible also, and they 
will believe in no record whatever of divine reve¬ 
lation. 

Professor M. Williams is right in saying that 

1 Cf. here specially the paper hy Dr. IMurray IMitchell on The 
Systems of Education pursued in India, Mildmay Conference, 
p. 124, sqq., and the discussion which followed. 


174 


PEOTESTANT EOEEIGN MISSIONS .* 


“ tlie faculty of faith is wholly destroyed at gov¬ 
ernment high schools and colleges^ Applied to 
the female population, this system of education 
Avithout Bible and religion must be especially 
demoralizing.” ^ If I judge rightly, the short-sight¬ 
edness of this system of the state which hopes, 
though in vain, by a certain neutrality in matters 
of religion to make every thing right in India and 
England, is continually raising dissatisfaction. For 
the government in this school policy is in reality 
not neutral,® neither against Hindoos nor Chris¬ 
tians, but is founding against both a third scepti¬ 
cism, which only believes in human knoAvledge. 
Therefore it is, as various men acquainted with 
India have assured me, that this wavering system 
between religions, be it in the school or elsewhere 
(as when, for example, Christian gOA''ernors, in 
order to show their liberality aid'^ morally and 

1 Ibid., p. 131. 

2 Mrs. AVeitbrecht, The Women of India, 1878, p. 28. 

3 See the Eev. J. Johnston’s remarks at the Mildmay Confer¬ 
ence, p. 146, sqq. AVhen statesmen repeatedly inquire, “ Are we 
at liberty to take the money of the natives of India to undermine 
their own religion?” we answer, The people of India are now 
intrusted to a Christian government which must in every way 
promote their welfare. If the government have the honest con¬ 
viction that this is done in the best and most lasting’manner by 
means of the blessings of the gos]Kil, then it is their duty, how¬ 
ever little understood by the present generation with regard to 
the future, to grant free access to these blessings, and, though of 
course without compulsion, to prepare the way for the extinction 
of the old religions. 

4 The viceroy. Lord Lytton (in the autumn of 1878), presented 
five hundred rupees to the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, in Um- 


INSTRUCTION FOR STATE SCHOOLS. 175 


materially lieatheD religious exercises, &c.), is not 
considered in the eyes of the heathen as great 
wisdom on the part of the state, but as simply 
weakness of religious character. For the Hindoo 
respects no one who works against his own reli¬ 
gion. And is he so veiy wrong? In fact, no policy 
is far-seeing which lacks character; and no state 
cares adequately for the future of a people, \vhich 
is destitute of the imperial idea, the firm belief 
in the continuous advance of the kingdom of God, 
and in the dependence of genuine human pros¬ 
perity upon its extension. But finally, and herein 
opinion is more and more united,^ the present gov¬ 
ernment schools no longer truly meet the real needs 
of India. Why, in proportion, so many higher 
schools? why expend so much money (five thou¬ 
sand to ten thousand dollars) to make a B.A., 
who is only prepared for an examination, and 
whose suddenly-acquired, undigested knowledge 
cannot long be retained, when as many as eighty- 
eight per cent of the Indian population still have 
as good as no education whatever ?2 What India 

ritsur, which won him little respect from the heathen. The other 
day the governor of Bombay, Sir Richard Temple, with his reti¬ 
nue, was present at an idolatrous festival, and listened to a pane¬ 
gyric on the elephant-headed goddess Ganpati. (See Bombay 
Guardian.) 

1 Even among governors and inspectors of government schools. 
(See Friend of India, Jan. 24, 1879, and Church Missionary Intel¬ 
ligencer, April, 1879, p. 214, sqq.; Mission.-Magazin, 1874, p. 
22, sqq.) 

2 See passage above quoted, pp. 21G, 217. 


176 


PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


needs is not so much academies, as Christian com¬ 
mon schools. 

In this state of the case, as long as the gov¬ 
ernment does not believe it possible to change 
essentially the present system, nothing at all 
remains, if I may be allowed an opinion on this 
intricate question, but to remind the government 
again and again of its freely given promise in 
1854 of liberal support for the mission schools, 
whose fulfilment many are now at last demand¬ 
ing ; ^ and to pray that at the same time, in the 
choice of teachers for the higher schools they may 
look more strictly to their Christian convictions, 
so that the instruction in the sciences may at least 
have a Christian support; finally, also, that they 
allow religious instruction in the Holy Scriptures 
to those who desire it; and, in like manner, that 
the Biblical instruction in the mission schools 
may be of some use in the examinations for a 
degree in the university.^ Therefore it is part of 
the task of all the missionary societies laboring in 
India to maintain intact their own lower and 
higher schools along with the government schools, 
and to extend them according to their means. 
As early as 1860, there were almost two thousand 
of these schools in India, which at the time of the 

1 See IMildmay Conference, p. 135, sqq. 

2 C/'. the same demand hy the director of the Church Mission¬ 
ary Society’s college in Masulipatam, Rev. M. Sharps, and of 

the Rev. Mr. Hughes of Reshawur; Mildmay Conference, p 
150 . ^ 


MISSION SCHOOLS TN INDIA. 


ITT 


Allahabad Conference (18T2) were attended hy 
one hundred and twenty-two thousand three liiin- 
dred and seventy-two scholars (among them 
twenty-six thousand six hundred and eleven girls), 
a number which since that time may have risen to 
one hundred and forty or one hundred and forty- 
three thousand.^ Witliin a decade over sixteen 
thousand of those have passed the entrance ex¬ 
amination of one of the Indian universities. Tfie 
Indian government has itself recently recognized ^ 
what a great gain for the spiritual and moral 
elevation of all classes of the people results from 
these mission schools and the mission work gen¬ 
erally. 

In Southern India Professor Williams praises 
particularly the schools of the Free Scotch Church 
in Madras, those of the Church Mission Society 
under Bis-hop Sargent in Tinnevelly, those of the 
Basel mission and industrial schools in Mangalore, 
and others.^ 

In the mean time it appears to us that too much 

1 According to Dr. M. Mitchell, Mildmay Conference, p. 132. 
According to Warneck, Mission und Cultur, p. 109, there were as 
many as 142,952 in 1872. 

2 Cf. in Church Missionary Gleaner, October, 1878, p. 113, a 
compilation of the testimonies of Lord Lawrence, Sir Bartle 
Frere, Sir Donald Macleod, Lord Northbrook, and other govern¬ 
ment reports, of the good effects of Protestant missions in India. 

3 The Indian Female Evangelist, July, 1879, p. 330. “ The 
great complaint that one hears on all sides, while travelling in 
India,” says Professor Williams, “ is that we are over-educating. 
Quality, not quantity, is what is wanted in India.” And not in 
India alone! 


178 


PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


is expected of the liome missionary exchequer, 
when those it supports are employed in purely 
scientific institutes, so that missionaries have to 
officiate as professors of philosophy, mathematics, 
&c. Many English missionary societies have in¬ 
stitutes of this kind, — for instance, in Calcutta 
and Madras, out of which there scarcely ever 
comes a convert, because Christian instruction 
must necessarily fall into the background before 
the mass of secular knowledge. If worldly sci¬ 
ences can and ought never to be excluded from 
the mission schools, yet their prime object should 
never be the extension of this knowledge, but 
that of the kingdom of Christ; not the training 
for state offices, but for capable church-members, 
teachers, and ministers. Further the mission in¬ 
terest, as such, does not reach. For higher edu¬ 
cation in secular sciences, the natives and their 
government should come to the front. We must 
not forget that as the old catechetical school in 
Alexandria became little by little a purely scien¬ 
tific institute, it ceased to flourish. 

XIII. This leads us to a glance at the present 
practice of the Indian missions in general. The 
Allahabad Conference recommended rightly, in¬ 
stead of simply stationary w^ork, an energetic pros¬ 
ecution of circuit preaching. What we remarked 
above in regard to the mission in Africa applies 
also to the missions among the civilized nations. 


PREACHtXG TOURS IN INDIA. 


179 


]\Iissionaries need to be evangelists far more than 
permanent pastors.^ At the same time they should 
proceed according to this double principle more 
than has as 3 "et been the case : first, to seek to 
reach as large a circle as possible; second, to remain 
long in particular places, where the people seem 
susceptible (compare Christ at Sychar, Jolin iv. 43), 
in order to prepare the way for the establishment 
of a congregation. As yet the village populations 
continue to be neglected ^ as compared with those 
of the cities, which are, however, the more difficult 
fields. On the other hand, physician-missionaries 
ought not to travel so much, but, for the most part, 
remain stationary.^ One reason why evangelistic 
preaching thi*ough the villages has fallen off is, 
without doubt, this: that some of the missionaries 
in India give themselves too much to school-work, 
in regard to which they have already with justice 
complained at Allahabad. The missionary society 
should continually emphasize this fact also in re¬ 
gard to one-sided literary work, that the mission 

1 Cf. here the excellent tract of the American Board (Boston), 
Missionarj'^ Tracts, No. 1.: The Theory of Missions to the Hea¬ 
then, p. 12, sqq. Cf., too, Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 
43, sqq.; 187(5, p. 443, sqq. 

2 A respectable Hindoo recently asked this question, “How is 
it that you missionaries are trying to work upon the people in 
the great towns, while you are leaving to a great extent un¬ 
touched, what is the backbone of the population of India, the 
village communities? ’’ See Mildmay Conference, p. 151, sqq. 

3 See the reasons in Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, 
October, 1878, p. 22; in the first place for China, but also for 
India. 


180 


PPwOTESTANT FOPEIGN MISSIONS: 


instruction and mission presses are always to aid, 
and only to aid, the preaching, and supplement ltd 

The Zenana mission is an essential factor in the 
work of the conversion of India, which must be 
much further developed, and that as far as possible 
in close connection with and kindly feeling toward 
the work of the missionary society; as is already 
the case, for example, with the Church Missionary 
Society. But in the work among the closely con¬ 
fined inmates of the Zenana, among the women in 
. prosperous families of high birth, let not those 
poor women of the cities and villages be forgotten, 
especially in those villages where they work in the 
fields but enjoy greater freedom, and are therefore 
more accessible,^ In the boarding-schools for girls 
let not the poor girls of higher castes be accus¬ 
tomed to European living, through which, when 
they return home, or are married to poor men, 
they will be dissatisfied.^ Among the most crying 
needs of India, are medical missions for rich and 
poor women. In cases of sickness they are wholly 
neglected; hence the enormously high death-rate 
among women and children. In the centre of 
populated districts, little by little female medical 
missions should be established.^ 

1 Cf., e.g,, the principle of the American Board in Boston: 
Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years, 18()3, p. 24C; and Mis¬ 
sionary Tracts, No. 15, Outline of Missionary Policy, p. 13, sqq. 

2 Cf. the account of the Rev. Mr. Paine, of Calcutta: Mildraay 
Conference, p, 31G, aqq. 

3 Mrs. Weithrecht, The Women of India, p. 24, sqq. 

4 Ibid., p. 25, and Mildmay Conference, p. 18G. 


THE ISriSSION PRESS. 


181 


The mission press is of greatest importance 
among a civilized heathen people, and doubly so 
when their land is being flooded Avith the scepti¬ 
cal literature of the West, on the inflowing tide 
of education and enlightenment. So is it with 
India. Already there have been large placards 
with extracts from Paine’s “Age of Reason ” post¬ 
ed on the walls of Calcutta, and read with eager¬ 
ness ; and in places where there are high-grade 
schools, for example in Bombay, for years, as has 
been remarked, educated natives, in opposing the 
missionaries, are heard to refer them to Hegel, 
Strauss, and Renan. Along with the godless life 
of many Europeans, we meet here especially with 
many attacks which have been made on Christi¬ 
anity, in Christian lands, the reports of which have 
reached this remote land. From this fact many 
argue that Christianity is in the death-struggle at 
home, and therefore it is laughable to wish to im¬ 
port it into other countries. Already our mis¬ 
sionaries meet opposition missionaries, sent out by 
the Brahmins to confute them.^ For this purpose, 
a bad, often vulgar press, scatters its issues far 
and wide over the land.^ It is self-evident how 
needful, in this battle, are the opposing influences 
of a Christian press. There are now, indeed, 
twenty-five missionary presses at work in India, 

1 e.g., the Basel Missionaries. See Heidenhote, November, 
1877, p. 82. 

Paine, as above quoted, p. 141. 


182 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN :»irSSIONS : 


from which, for example, from 1862-72, three 
thousand four hundred and ten new works in 
thirty different languages have gone out, and in 
the same period one million three hundred and 
fifteen thousand five hundred and three portions 
of Scripture; two million three hundred and 
seventy-five thousand and forty school-books, and 
eight million seven hundred and fifty thousand 
one hundred and twenty-nine tracts and Christian 
books, have been distributed^ The Basel mission 
presses of Mangalore in 1877 printed one hundred 
and sixty-six thousand and ninety books and 
tracts, in three of the Indian languages and in 
English.^ What the Bible and Tract Societies 
and the Christian Vernacular Education Society 
have accomplished in this direction certainly 
deserves all praise. Nevertheless, as one well ac¬ 
quainted with India assures us, this is very insig¬ 
nificant in comparison with the greatness of the 
task,3 and with the extent of heathen and infidel 
literature. And this reminder especially is not 
superfluous, that not only are good linguists ne¬ 
cessary, but eminent theologians also, in order to 
oppose the inflowing tide of unbelief with a thor¬ 
ough and enduring Christian apologetical litera¬ 
ture. 

The expulsion of a member of a caste from his 

1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 147. 

2 The missionary Mr. Schrenk, Mildmay Conference, p. 142. 

8 Paine, as above quoted, p. 140. 


NATIVE CHRISTIANS IN BUSINESS. 183 


family at his conversion to Christianity, because 
his means of living are thereby taken from liim, 
is still the cause of much difficulty to the missions. 
The lower castes, in which most of the conversions 
take place, are poor anyway. Here of course 
mission industry is to be recommended. Only the 
missionary must take care not to become a pro¬ 
fessional almsgiver, and thereby keep the members 
of the congregation in imbecility. Better no mis¬ 
sion industry than “ rice-Christians.” What a 
fine moral effect is wrought by Christian manage¬ 
ment of business may be seeu in an instance 
of the Church Missionary Society, lately reported 
to me from Umritsur. A' converted man, as a 
means of earning a livelihood, was assisted to the 
opening of a shop. He began his business in such 
a strictly conscientious manner that it is now 
known throughout the whole cit}" as “ the honest 
shop.” Already shops, starting from this one, 
have been established in other places. These are 
also pioneers of Christianity, and very important 
ones; for native Christians in good secular call¬ 
ings are at this time very necessary in the Indian 
congregations.1 The external well-being of indi¬ 
vidual Christian congregations during hard times 
already here and there excites the attention of 
their heathen neighbors.^ 

1 See Allgemeiiie IMissions Zeitsclirift, ISKI, p. 20. 

2 Thus in Madura. See Missionary Magazine of Calw., 1879, 
p. 48. See further particulars regarding the position of missions 


184 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


How very miicli the evangelical mission in India 
has sought for increasing clearness in these and 
other important questions of the inner organiza¬ 
tion of the work, as to national peculiarities, 
such as the introduction of European clothing and 
habits of living, — against wdiich we haA'e already 
Avarned, — the education, appointment, and guid¬ 
ance of native evangelists, teachers, and preachers, 
the buildiiig-upof congregations, and making native 
churches independent, the discussions of the Alla¬ 
habad C'onference, whose earnest attempts to estab¬ 
lish general principles in regard to this matter, 
clearly show. AVithout doubt we have often 
been too quick in traiisferring the forms and rules 
of the culture and administration of the home 
churches in their minute details into the Indian 
congregations, instead of being contented in the 
beginning Avith fundamental principles, leaving 
the particulars to the groAving spirit of the con¬ 
gregation according to its national peculiarities. 
A et a civilized people has of course more claim 
than a barbarous one, that the missionaries should 
really put themselves into the customs, aucaa^s, 
habits, into the Avhole spirit and character of the 
people, according to its historical development, 
in arranging its cliurch organization; and, so far 
as national peculiarities do not oppose the spirit 

to the outward condition of native Christians, in the Transactions 
of tlie Allaliahad Conference, and the Allgemeine Missions 
Zeitschrift, fSTO, p. 15, sqq. 


AN INDIAN NATIONAL CHUKCH. 


185 


of the gospel, allow as much freedom as possible. 
The great aim of the organization of a future self- 
supporting Indian church, which should only take 
out of the forms of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
and Independent Churches, that which agrees with 
the Indian spirit, has not from the beginning been 
kept enough in mind. Hence the manifold discus¬ 
sions of the native pastors, ^— yea, of the educated 
heathen Cliristians in general, — against the domi¬ 
nating attitude of the missionaries, which has not 
everywhere been brotherly enough. The recogni¬ 
tion of neglect here appears to be gaining ground 
continuall}^^ It is high time. For now, with the 
conversion of tlie masses, begun in Southern India, 
the question of founding an Indian evangelical 
national church will become more and more a 
burning question. Precisely in India, under Chris¬ 
tian European rule, the law stated above must be 
kept especially clear in mind, — not to denation¬ 
alize. 

P>ut, with all the imperfections and necessity for 
extension of the system of mission work liereto- 
fore employed, the results given above, and the 
success of recent times, show a progress most 
remarkable. And it must not be forgotten, 
amidst much that our criticism demands, that 

1 Cf. the address of the missionary Mr. Barton (Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society) at the Allaliahad Conference ; Allgemeine Mis¬ 
sions Zeitschrift, 1870, p. 30, sqq.; Graul, as before quoted, p. 
147, sqq., 155. 


186 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


the moral influence of Christianity and of Chris¬ 
tians in China, and also in India, is almost wholly 
sustained through the missionaries alone. “But 
for the English missionaries,” says “The Friend 
of India” (a secular organ), “the^iatives of India 
would have a very poor opinion of Englishmen. 
The missionary alone, of all Englishmen, is the 
representative of a disinterested desire to elevate 
and improve the people.”^ And a Hindoo in very 
high standing said a short time ago to the wife of 
a missionary closely related to myself, “You mis¬ 
sionaries are the oidy persons in whom we really 
have confidence.”^ Hence they are a very im¬ 
portant bond between the little-loved English gov¬ 
ernment and the Indian people. Since the last 
famine, and the self-sacrificing activity of many 
missionaries, this trust has increased. Since then 
you could hear whole crowds of people shouting, 
to the vexation of the Brahmins, “ Our own peo¬ 
ple did nothing for us, and, were it not for the 
generosity of Christians, more than half of us 
would have perished. Christians worship the true 
God, and are in possession of the true religion; 


1 See The Christian, April 3, 1870, p. 5. 

The same is testihed by Prof. Williams. See Indian Fe¬ 
male Evangelist, July, 1870, p. 330. CV., too, the testimony of the 
Avell-known Brahmin Keshnb Chunder Sen, given recently in a 
public speech of his in Calcutta, on “ Who is Christ? ” referring 
to the debt of gratitude which India owes to the missionaries for 
their self-devotion. See Indian Christian Herald, 1879, Nos. 7 
and 8, and Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 416, sqq. 


HINDOOISM DYING. 


187 


whereas our countrymen worship false gods, and 
observe false religions.” ^ 

In fact, there has been more done in India than 
the figures in missionary statistics shoAv. jMany 
secret believers avoid making their profession pub¬ 
lic,^ and often, upon their death-beds, astonish the 
missionary by their faith in Christ. Idolatry is 
continually losing all credit. The process of the 
complete displacement of Brahminism comes more 
and more clearly to vieAv, — a spiritual revolution 
Avhich has not its origin in the mission alone, not 
in the rationalistic influences of the school and 
science, in the human spirit of law-giving and 
government, in the example of Christian house¬ 
keeping and its quiet effects, but takes its course 
irrepressibly through India, and continually per¬ 
forates the old stereotyped views.^ Even in Be¬ 
nares a class of learned men is growing up, who 
are not willing longer to remain under the yoke 
of the past, in wliose e^^es the religion of a many¬ 
headed Deity and sculptures, of holy springs and 
streams, lose all enchantment. And, if the people 
become better than their gods, their Avorship of 
these is at an end. 

The Hindoos themselves feel and knoAV that 

1 London Missionary Society’s Report for 1879, p. 15, Accord¬ 
ing to this report, the influence of caste has been ranch shaken 
hy the behavior of the heathen during the famine. 

2 The AVoinen of India, p. 20, 

3 Cf. the Report of the London Missionary Society, as early 
as 1871, jip. 49-51. 


188 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


the downfall of their faith is inevitable. Hence 
the growing unrest which is taking hold of the 
massesd Hence the attempts to strengthen the 
old sinking faith, by the fusion of many religious 
forms, which always precede the downfall of a 
particular creed. These are numerous but short¬ 
lived. The latest — the Brahmo-Somaj — was still¬ 
born, and its dissolution has already begun; but 
it must in its manner also help prepare the way 
for Christianity. Its founder, the well-known Ke- 
shub Chunder Sen, was obliged to acknowledge 
years ago, that “ The spirit of Christianity has 
always pervaded the whole atmosphere of Indian 
society; and we breathe, think, feel, and move in 
a Christian atmosphere. Native society is being 
roused, enlightened, and reformed under the influ¬ 
ence of Christianity ! ” ^ And the same half-hea¬ 
then, half-Christian rhetorician recently crowned 
this his testimony, in a public speech at Calcutta, 
with the confession, “ Our hearts are touched, 
conquered, overcome, by a Higher Power; and 
this Power is Christ: Christ, not the British Gov¬ 
ernment, rules India ! No one but Christ has de¬ 
served the precious diadem of the Indian crown, 
and he will have it! ” ^ IMax Muller had good 

1 See the accounts by Rev. Mr. Jenkins, Mildmay Conference, 
p. 167, sqq. 

2 Lecture on The Future Church; see, too, the London Mis¬ 
sionary Society’s Report, 1870, p. 33. 

3 See extracts of this remarkable speech in the Allgemeine 
Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 147. 


MALACCA, SIAM, LAOS. 


189 


reason, therefore, to say to the late Norman 
McLeod, “ From what I know of the Hindoos, 
they seem to me riper for Christianity than any 
nation that ever accepted the gospel.’' ^ 

XIV. We hasten past the beginnings of mis¬ 
sion work on the peninsnla of Malacca, where, 
unfortunately, Islam preceded the gospel; with its 
large Chinese population, as long as the Celestial 
Empire itself was closed, it formed an important 
outpost for Chinese missions; operations are car¬ 
ried on to-day in the North (Tenasserim) by the 
American Baptists and Presbyterians, and in the 
South (Singapore) by the Propagation Society. 

We also hasten past Siam and Laos, where the 
American Presbyterians have founded small con¬ 
gregations, partly in and around Bangkok, on the 
coast, and partly already far inland in Chiengmai,^ 
where, recently, under the caprice of a despotic 
ruler, the blood of martyrs has freely been shed.^ 

XV. With China, as is'known, we come to the 
greatest, most populous heathen nation in the 
world. The number of inhabitants, however, has 
been largely diminished during the last twenty- 

1 See Evangelical Christendom, June, 1870, p. 178, 

2 See Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby¬ 
terian Church, 1879, p. 50, sqq. In Siam, altogether, 133 commu¬ 
nicants, in Laos thirty-one. 

3 See Foreign Missionary (American Presbyterian Church), 
March, 1879; Calw. Mission.-Magazin, 1878, p. 30, sqq. 


190 


PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: 


five years by rebellions, famine, and plagues; for¬ 
merly they counted four hundred millions, while 
-to-day some travellers think there are really not 
more than two hundred and forty millions^ 

Since the first opium-war, by the peace of Nan¬ 
king, 1842, five harbor cities have been open to the 
gospel and to trade; and since the second war, 
by the treaty of Tientsin, 1860, the interior also 
has been opened to the gospel and to trade; so 
that it is but a short time that the Middle King¬ 
dom has become the scene of extended evangelical 
missionary operations. The opening-up of the 
land by force in the interest of a heartless, much- 
to-be-deplored commercial policy, which gives to 
every European the appearance of prosecuting 
his own selfish ends; the shortness of the time in 
which missionary effort has been put forth in the 
midst of this strange country ; the enormous diffi¬ 
culties in the land and people, in the language, 
manners, religion, and politics of China, with her 
culture and literature petrified by existence for 
three thousand years, which have conduced in¬ 
finitely to the increase of heathen self-conceit, 
with practical materialism and endaimonism com¬ 
pletely ruling the life of the masses, — all this 
would fully justify the results of Protestant mis¬ 
sions, if they were exceedingly small. 

1 According to the Rev. J. H. Taylor, as only 240,000,000: 
Mildinay Conference, p. 211. In several provinces the present 
population amounts only to one-lifth of what it used to be. 


CHINA. 


191 


But this is not the case. The old missionary 
societies have comprehended the importance of 
opening this chief door to the evangelization of 
the world; and, while previously they could only 
come in contact with this great kingdom through a 
few messengers on the outer points, within the last 
eighteen-years they have increased their working 
forces more than fourfold, and have drawn many 
sister societies after them into the field. To-day 
we find twenty-six missionary societies (including 
the Bible 'societies, twenty-nine), with two hun¬ 
dred and forty or two hundred and fifty or¬ 
dained missionaries and sixty-three female teach¬ 
ers, enofao;ed there in the work,^ and the number 
is increasing continually. Thirteen of these so¬ 
cieties, with seventy-eight married and forty-four 
unmarried missionaries, are from England (the 
Church Missionary Society with twenty, then the 
London, 'Wesleyan, and various Presbyterian so¬ 
cieties of Scotland and England, the Propagation 
Society with only two, but the China Inland mis¬ 
sion with forty-nine missionaries and twenty inde¬ 
pendent female teachers) ; eleven societies from 
America, with seventy-seven married missionaries, 
sixteen unmarried, and forty female teachers. Of 
these the American Board has seventeen mission- 

1 See Records of the General Missionary Conference at 
Shanghai, 1877. Prof. Legge, Mildmay Conference, p. 171. 
Christlieb, The Indo-British Opium-Trade and its Effects, 1878, 
p. 61, sqq. 


192 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS; 


aries, three medical missionaries, twenty-five fe¬ 
male teachers; the Presbyterians, twenty-one mis¬ 
sionaries, sixteen female teachers, three missionar}' 
physicians (two female) ; the Methodist Episcopal, 
nine missionaries and nine female helpers; ^ the 
Free Baptists, American Missionary Association. 
Reformed Dutch, American Lutheran, and others; 
and the Continent of Europe only two societies, 
with twenty-two married and four unmarried mis¬ 
sionaries, — the Basel and Barmen iMissionary So¬ 
cieties, with the latter of which the Berlin Chi¬ 
nese mission was united within the past few years. 
These forces are divided among ninety-one centra] 
and five hundred and eleven out-stations. The 
available fruit of their labor has often, until re¬ 
cently, been underrated, by taking the number of 
communicants as the whole number of those who 
belonged to the Protestant congregations. But in 
the autumn of 1878, at the Mildmay Conference, 
Prof. Dr. Legge, one of the oldest workers in 
China, and best acquainted with it, and the Rev. 
Hudson Taylor, the leader of the Chinese Inland 
mission, who has twice travelled through China, 
have taught us better.^ According to them, in 
1877 there were organized in those stations three 
hundred and twelve to three hundred and eighteen 


1 See the last Annual Reports of these societies. 

2 INIihlmay Conference, p. 171, .sgfj'., and the Monthly Maga¬ 
zine of the China Inland mission, China’s Millions. See various 
numbers of the last two years. 


CHINA: CHEAT ADVANCES. 


193 


i^rotestant Chinese congregations (of which eigh- 
een are already entirely self-supporting, and two 
lundred and forty-three partly so), with thirteen 
housand one hnndred and forty-four (according 
0 a somewliat later computation, thirteen thou- 
;and five hundred and fifteen) communicants, and 
ibout fifty thousand souls, who are connected 
vith-the evangelical churches. The former con- 

O 

-ribute i! 20,000 per 3 'ear for churches and mis- 
ions; that is, ^1.50 per head. There are already 
it work among these, sevent^^-three native ordained 
)astors and preachers, five hundred and eleven 
emale helpers, seventy-one colporteurs, and ninety 
lible-women. I'hese societies and congregations 
ogether maintain twenty schools of theology with 
wo hundred and thirty-one students, thirty board- 
ng-schools for higher education, with six liundred 
md eleven boys, thirty-eight with seven hundred 
aid seventy-seven girls, one hundred and seventy- 
even day schools for l)oys, with four to five thou- 
and; ^ eighty-two for girls, one thousand three 
lundred and seven scholars. There are sixteen 
nission hospitals and twenty-four mission apothe- 
ary-shops, under the supervision of the medical 
lissionaries. 

What an advance since 1843, when the number 
f converts was six ! I ask, is it just, in face of this 

1 Mildmay Conference, p. 171, misprints the number of day 
jhools as 299. See below the statistics of the schools of the 
iveral provinces. 


194 


PKOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


exactly-computed (since May, 1877), trustworthy 
result in a work of a few decades, to believe there 
is no real success in the former methods of mission- 
work in China? or is Dr. Legge right, when he 
says, “ Already the results uj^ to the present time 
completely justify our missionary efforts there, and 
our hopes for increasing success in the future ” ? ^ 

The Homan Catholic mission had, in 1876, four 
hundred and four thousand live hundred and thir¬ 
ty adherents in China,^ with an annual increase 
of about two thousand so'uls.^ But she has 
worked for this result almost three hundred years. 
If the Protestant mission, which increased the 
number of its converts during the last thirtv-live 
years two thousand fold, contiiiues to gain in the 
same ratio, there will be in China in 1913, twenty- 
six million communicants and about one hundred 
million evangelical Christians.^ 

If we consider for a moment, how the small 
centres of gospel light are divided in this great 
empire, we shall see them running partly along 
the east coast from Hongkong and Canton, to the 
frontiers of Manchuria in the north, partly pene¬ 
trating from year to year more toward the central 
provinces, while the west provinces are still almost 
as good as untouched by the gospel.' 

1 As above quoted, p. IGO. 

2 According to the Bulletin des Missions Catlioliques for 1876. 

3 According to Dr. Legge, as above quoted, p. 174. 

^ Dr, Legge, as above quoted, p. 177. 


CHINA TRAVERSED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 195 


In the province K^Yang-tung, in front of which 
lies the English island Hongkong, partly upon 
this and partly upon the maiidand, with the capi¬ 
tal Canton, we find the German societies: Basel 
with four central stations, the number of whose 
church-members has increased more rapidly within 
the last few years than ever before (now one thou- 
-sand eight hundred and twenty-seven baptized); 
Barmen with five stations (the centre is now Can¬ 
ton) and eight to nine hundred Christians (1877, 
seven hundred and forty) : both having the same 
experience, that the race of the Hakkas is incom¬ 
parably more accessible than that of the Puntis. 
In addition, there is the fouiKlling-house, Bethesda, 
of the Berlin Ladies’ Society, on Hongkong; ^ also 
a number of English (Church ^Missionary, London, 
English Presbyterians, Wesleyans) and American 
(Presbyterian and Baptist) societies. There are 
here, altogether, about fifty (including Hong¬ 
kong, sixty-two) European and American missiona¬ 
ries and missionary physicians. Of these Canton, 
which now has fourteen chapels open almost daily 
for divine service, has twenty-eight, Swatow nine, 
&c., with together one hundred and forty-six 
native helpers, nine central and eighty-two out- 
stations.2 There are thirty-five organized congre- 

1 For further particulars as to the latter, see the quarterly aud 
annual reports of the Berlin Ladies’ Association for China. 

2 These and the figures of the other provinces are taken from 
the statements of the Rev. II. Taylor, Mildmay Conference, pp. 
247-254. 

i 


196 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN mSSIONS: 


gations, with three thousand one hundred and 
ninety communicants, seventy-seven day schools, 
in which two thousand one hundred and thirteen 
scholars are instructed. From here on, farther 
toward the north and far into the interior, we 
find only English and American missions. In 
the Province Fuh-kien, stretching along the coast, 
we enter the most productive Protestant mission. 
Here in Amoy, the London and English Presby¬ 
terian Societies are Avorking side by side with the 
American Reformed Dutch; farther to the north, 
in Fu-chau, the Church Missionary Society, the 
Methodist Episcopal, and American Board, alto¬ 
gether not more than thirty-eight missionaries, but 
with three hundred and twenty native helpers, in 
two central and two hundred and seventy-three 
out stations' In these there are already one hun¬ 
dred and seventy-three organized congregations, 
with six thousand two hundred and forty-seven 
communicants, one hundred and forty-nine schools, 
with two thousand one hundred and thirty-one 
scholars. Of the tAvelve larger cities of Fu, ten 
are occupied, Avhile of the sixty-five Lien or chief 
towns of the district, the greater part are without 
any mission Avhatever. Upon the island of For¬ 
mosa, which lies before this coast, twelve years 
ago the English Presbyterians, recently strength¬ 
ened by a number of missionaries from the young 
Canadian-Presbyterian mission, opened a very 
nourishing mission, working especially through 


CHINA TRAVERSED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 197 


mission hospitals. The mission numbers already 
thirteen congregations for Chinese, and thirteen 
of the aborigines, with about one thousand bap¬ 
tized converts and at least three thousand attend¬ 
ants at public worship. The Canadians have been 
able within the last five years to establish twenty 
congregations, and are with the English Presby¬ 
terians on a strong footing. Together they pub¬ 
lish yearly a Christian Almanac in Chinese, of 
which they have distributed twelve thousand 
copies. The missionaries of Amoy have trans¬ 
lated the New Testament into the vernacular of 
Amoy, and, this language being spoken in For¬ 
mosa, this translation will be used there.^ Next 
in situation and number of converts comes the 
province Cheh-kiang, further up the east coast, 
with Ningpo, where the mission was discontinued 
for a time on account of the disorders of the rebel¬ 
lion. Now this field, as in Fuhkien, is promising. 
In Ningpo alone, eighteen missionaries are at 
work, in Hang-chan twelve, &c., in all forty-five 
missionaries and one hundred and fifty native 
helpers, divided among eleven central and ninety- 
four out-stations : fifty-six congregations, with over 
eighteen hundred communicants, have been organ¬ 
ized, and sixty-one schools with one thousand 
and twenty-six scholars. Among the English and 

1 Taylor as above qnoted, and Der cliristliclie Apologete, IMay 
5, 1879; also, a private letter from Rev. Thomas Barclay, For¬ 
mosa, February, 1880. 


198 PIIOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


American missionary societies in this smallest Chi¬ 
nese province, the London China Inland mission 
is specially well represented. They have already 
opened a number of the chief department-towns 
to missions; and the American Presbyterians have 
here seven missionaries, eleven ordained native 
preachers, seventeen evangelists, thirty-nine native 
helpers, fourteen congregations with seven hun¬ 
dred and thirty-four communicants and thirty-four 
chapels; ^ then come the American Southern Bap¬ 
tists and Presbyterians, the English Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society, and others. It is especially worthy 
of note, that out of the numerous vegetarians in 
this province, many converts have been Avon by 
the Presbyterians.^ 

The province Kiang-su, lying farther to the 
north, in Avhich Shanghai, Nanking, Su-chau, and 
Chiu-kiang form the most important mission cen¬ 
tres, has been occupied in five central and tAventy- 
eiglit out-stations, by thirty-seven missionaries and 
sixty-four native helpers, nineteen organized con¬ 
gregations, AAuth seven hundred and eighty com¬ 
municants, seventy-four schools, with one thou¬ 
sand five hundred and seventy-six scholars, are-the 
first fruits of this Avork. The field in Sharnrhai 
j)roves much harder than in Cheh-kiang: the other 
stations are all comparatively young. The prov- 

1 Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby¬ 
terian Church, 1879, p. 69. 

2 Ibid,, p. 68. 


CHINA TRAVERSED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 199 


ince Shan-tung is somewhat less occupied, wherein, 
with the exception of Che-foo, Tung-chau, and one 
or two distant places, only thirteen out-stations 
have been touched ^ by the mission since 1860. 
Considering the shortness of the time and the 
small number of workers (twenty-eight missiona¬ 
ries and twenty-five native helpers), the progress 
here is very encouraging. There are to-day four¬ 
teen congregations with over eight hundred com¬ 
municants, and twenty-six schools with five hun¬ 
dred and thirty-four scholars. According to the 
latest report of the American Presbyterians, the 
people in Shan-tung are “ unusually ready to re¬ 
ceive the truth.” ^ Similar reports come from the 
London mission and Methodist New Connection.^ 

As the most northerly of the coast provinces of 
China proper, comes the important Chi-li province, 
with Peking and Tientsin. Here there are forty- 
six missionaries and missionary physicians with 
fifty-eigiit native helpers at work, in four central 
and thirty-six out-stations; in Peking, twenty- 
nine ; in Tientsin, nine, &c. The city Kalgan, 
built immediately upon the great Chinese Wall, 
forms the basis for the mission work among the 

1 According to the statistics of the Shanghai Conference, 1877; 
others mention thirty-four outlying stations, owing to their in¬ 
cluding many outlying stations of Peking, i.e., of the province 
Chi-li; Taylor, as above quoted, p. 251, note. 

2 Report, 1879, p. 63. In 1878, there was an increase of 114 
communicants. 

8 See Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, Marz, 1879, 
p. 57, sqq. 


200 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


Mongolians on the other side of the wall. At 
present in Peking, the London Missionary Society 
has the largest Protestant congregation and a mis¬ 
sion hospital, the American Board two small con¬ 
gregations, a number of scliools, and a mission 
press. Also the Church Missionary Society, the 
American Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist 
Episcopal, and the American Presbyterian Church¬ 
es are represented by missions in this Chinese 
capital. This province has altogether twenty- 
three organized congregations, one thousand two 
hundred and seventeen communicants, forty-seven 
schools, and seven hundred and fifty-six scholars. 
Here, as everywhere in China, the number of 
scholars, in proportion to that of the schools, is 
still somewhat less than that of other mission 
districts, — a proof of the great and continuing 
influence of lower and higher heathen schools. 

In the interior provinces of the empire, Hu-peh 
with Hankau, where the London Missionary So¬ 
ciety has a very fruitful field,i and other cities, 
have the most agencies: five stations and six 
out-stations with twenty-one missionaries, thirteen 
native helpers, seven organized congregations, six 
hundred and twenty-seven communicants, eleven 
schools with two hundied and forty-five scholars; 
while in the province Gan-hwuy with four mis¬ 
sionaries and seventeen helpers, and Kiang-si with 
eight missionaries and seven or eight helpers, the 

1 See Report of tUp London Missionary Society, 1879, p. 10, sqq. 


ALL CHINA ACCESSIBLE. 


201 


work is just begun. Outside of the eighteen prov¬ 
inces of China proper, of which nine are Avholly 
unoccupied, we find north-east of Peking, in a 
province of Manchuria, Shing-king, one of the out¬ 
posts of evangelical missions, three missionaries of 
the Irish Presbyterian and of the Scotch United 
Presbyterian Churches, having two central and six 
out-stations, with a number of schools and small 
congregations. 

Of more importance, however, than statistics 
on special points, is the fact that since the Che- 
foo convention ot the Chinese magistrates (ill 
consequence of the murder of Margary) the unre¬ 
strained right of travelling through the whole 
empire has been given to all foreigners. On the 
strength of this, during the past few years China 
has been traversed in almost all directions by 
evangelical missionaries, who testify of the great 
willingness with which the people in the interior 
receive Christian books and tracts. The mis¬ 
sionary, Mr. T. McCarthy (of the China Inland 
mission) with one of his companions went preach¬ 
ing through the whole land (even before the mur¬ 
derers of Margary), and came on tlieir way unhin¬ 
dered to Burmah.^ lie says, “ The people of the 
interior are prepared to hear the gospel. The 
former difficulties are to a great extent removed. 
During a journey of three thousand miles in 


1 See his own statements at tlie Miklmay Gonferenee, p. 2oo, 


202 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 

China, I was not called on once to present my 
passport, nor had I occasion to appeal to a magis¬ 
trate for aid of any kind. Yet in every city, town, 
and village through which I passed, I was ena¬ 
bled to preach the gospel to large numbers of 
people.” ^ 

What a door is now opened there ! One of the 
Irish Presbyterian missionaries went a thousand 
miles through Manchuria, preaching as he went, 
up to the Russian border, where he came upon the 
Greek mission, and found in many houses a good, 
simple catechism of the evangelical doctrines, which 
the Russian missionaries had written.^ Thus gradu¬ 
ally the golden chain of Christian light is united 
from one end of Asia to the other. 

XVI. If we cast a glance at the internal condi¬ 
tion of the missions, such a discerning man as Dr. 
Letr^e assures us that the missions and missionaries 
of Protestant churches are held in higher esteem 
by the people and government of China, than the 
Roman Catholic.^ Not that we wish to diminish 
in any respect the results of the latter or the sin¬ 
cerity of the faith of their adherents, which many 
have sealed with their blood. But the Protestant 
missionaries are free from their false policy, much 

1 Ibid.,p. 25G. 

2 See the statements of the Rev, Fleming Stevenson, Mild- 
may Conference, p. 219. 

8 Mildmay Conference, p. 175. 


MISSION PRESS IN CHINA. 


203 


hated by the Chinese rulers, the policy to which 
France lends aid, of interference in civil matters 
and of demanding certain rights over their con¬ 
verts ; fr5m their celibacy and confessional, which 
are regarded with so much mistrust; from their 
dependence on the Pope, and their no less dis¬ 
agreeable practice of the last anointing. So far 
at least, the prospect of our missionaries for the 
future is much brighter. In addition to this, 
there are the literarv achievements of the Prot- 

*j 

estant missions in China. First, the translation 
of the Bible, which since the first work of Morri¬ 
son and IMilne has little by little been greatly 
improved, so that now the British Bible Society 
is distributing an edition, which, for faithfulness 
in its contents and elegance of style, need not 
shun comparison with any translation of the 
Bible whatever; then, the many Christian books 
and tracts, explanations of particular parts of the 
Bible, religious periodicals and those generally 
educational, from the pens of missionaries, which 
have found their way from the South to Peking 
and into the royal palace ; editions of Chinese 
philosophers, by Protestant missionaries.^ All this 
in so short a time compares equally well with the 
scientific achievements* of the Homan Catholics. 
Indeed, the internal progress of missionary meth¬ 
ods in China, through literary work of all kinds, 

1 For further particulars see Evangel. Mission.-Magazin, 1879, 
p, 158, 6‘gg. 


204 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN IMISSIONS: 


is to-day very remarkable. An edition of the Chi¬ 
nese classics, composed of selections, with notes 
written in a Christian apologetic spirit by Dr. 
Faber of the Rhenish mission, at the request of 
the General IMissionary Conference in China, must 
become a powerful, though indirect, means for 
winning this land of culture to Christianity. But 
this work recpiires particularly gifted and capable 
workers. If anywhere, surely the very best men 
should be sent to China. 

• The brotherly, large-hearted catholicity of the 
missionaries belonging to the different Protestant 
societies must be commended as a very hopeful 
sign for the future. When, for example, the first 
Chinese Presbyterian church was dedicated in 
Peking, all the Protestant missionaries there, Pres¬ 
byterians, Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Independ¬ 
ents, with their native Christians, came together 
as with one heart to witness the ceremony. The 
Presbyterian Missionary Societies here have even 
combined, and formed a Presbyterian Union, with 
a common synod. 

The native Chinese Christians, however weak 
tliey may be in many places, according to jMt. 
Fleming Stevenson, — who returned in 1878 from 
a journey of inspection around the world, — will 
already, in part, stand comparison with congrega¬ 
tions of old Christian countries. He says,^ “ I have 
found nowhere in Christian lands men and women 

1 Mildmay Conference, pp. 220, 221. 


THE HARVEST RIPENING IN CHINA. 205 


of a higher tyj)e than I met with in China, of a 
finer spiritual experience, of a higher spiritual 
tone, or of nobler spiritual life.” JMany bear about 
on their bodies scars and brand-marks from the 
tortures they have endured for the sake of the gos- 
pel.i “ They could cut off our heads,” said some 
earnest men to Mr. Stevenson, “ but they cannot 
behead Christ.” Even in recent times there is 
manifest in some places the continuance of the old 
hatred of foreigners. Ever and anon a partial 
persecution breaks out, as the other day at one of 
the stations of the Basel mission. 

It can be easily understood that in a territory 
of such great magnitude, the different fields must 
vary in productiveness. In the large seajDorts, 
here as elsewhere the word sown finds a hard soil. 
But it is of great value here, because many coun¬ 
try people come and go,^ and carry the good seed 
away with them. 

In the interior, as a rule, the masses listen to 
the gospel with much less prejudice. During the 
past few years, however, by means of the terrible 
famine in North-east China (about twelve millions 
of souls jierished^), God has loosened the soil more 
deeply in many places than ever before, and broken 
more thoroughly the defiance of the old national 

1 Rev. F. T. Turner, Mildraay Conference, p. 258. 

2 According to the Rev. F. Stevenson, Mildinay Conference, 
pp. 217, 218. 

^ See Rev. F. Stevenson, Our Mission to the East, 1878, p. 31. 


206 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


pride. Bands of children, offered for sale at a few 
dollars per head, exhumed corpses, greedily de¬ 
voured, show how suddenly this ancient, proud, 
civilized people — whose common peasantry can 
trace back their ancestry farther than our oldest 
princes and nobility — can sink back again to the 
lowest depths of degradation, even to cannibalism.^ 
Then the Christians had — as a short time before in 
India—an excellent opportunity of showing the 
superiority of true culture, renewing and ennobling 
the depths of the heart and mind, over the superfi¬ 
cial, outward, rusted, and semi-civilization of China; 
the grandeur of Christian love, born of God, and 
therefore self-forgetting, compared with heathen 
selfishness, unconcealed by the gloss of outward 
education. And they did it. Thousands of dollars 
collected among Christians in Asia, and especially 
in England, were distributed among the starving, 
and with such self-sacrifice that five missionaries 
fell victims to their over-exertions.^ From the glar¬ 
ing contrast between this Christian aid thus ren¬ 
dered, and the heartless, sometimes thievish, con- 


1 See Christlieb, The Indo-British Opium-Trade and its Ef¬ 
fect, p. 43, sqq. 

The Shanghai Courier said, with reference to this, “ If we 
contrast the labors of these men with the selfish life of the great 
masses of the people, we are constrained to express our highest 
admiration and gratitude to the former, and he thankful to have 
such examx^les given us. These men are the pioneers of civiliza¬ 
tion and of Christianity, and have fallen, sword in hand, on the 
field of battle. And it is encouraging to see that fresh volun¬ 
teers at once hasten to fill uj:) the gap.” 


KELIEF OT' STARVING IN CHINA. 207 

duct of the mandarins, the eyes of thousands of 
Chinese have been opened to see the inward majesty 
of Christianity; so that the strangers, whom from 
youth up they had been taught to despise, suddenly 
appeared to them as ministers of life. When the 
starving Chinese asked the Christian Samaritans 
who journeyed about giving assistance, “ Whence 
do you come, and why ? Who sends us this ? We 
are quite a different people,” and received with 
astonishment the reply, “ We come from Christian 
lands j the Christians- wish to help you in your 
great need: whether you are a different race, or 
not, we are all the children of the one great Fa¬ 
ther,”— completely overcome, one would hear them 
cry out, “ This is new: we have never experienced 
the like of this.” ^ 

“ The distribution of gifts of Christian charity 
through the missionaries,” writes Mr. Forrest, the 
British consul in Tientsin, “ will do actually more 
to promote the opening-up of China than a dozen 
wars.” In fact, it seems noAv in some of the north¬ 
ern provinces, for example, Shan-tung, that the 
door has been flung open wider than ever for the 
gospel; hundreds are eager for Christian instruc¬ 
tion.^ The moral effect of this deed'Sermon of 

1 See further particulars in the Annual Report of the London 
Missionary Society, 1878, p. 57, sqq.: 1879, p. 8, sqq. 

2 In the town of Chan-hua (j^rovince of Shang-tung) these at 
present number three to four hundred. See Chronicle of \he 
London Missionary Society, March, 1879, p. 57. According to 
the i>eriodical. Spirit of Missions, a large and splendid temple of 


208 


PROTESTANT FORPNGN MISSIONS : 


Christian charity is precisely herti the more cheer¬ 
ing, because perhaps in no other heathen land has 
belief in the unselfishness of Cliristian love — and, 
indeed, through the fault of Christians — been 
made so difficult as in this land of China groaning 
under the withering curse of opium. Let us never 
forget that to all the ordinarily enormous hin- 
derances of evangelization, there was added here, 
decades ago, an offence great enough to make the 
heathen wholly disbelieve in the possibility of good 
intentions on the part of Christians, — the opium- 
trade ! an offence which works the physical, moral, 
and social ruin of China, with a terrible progres¬ 
sion ; a traffic forced upon China by a Christian 
power, only that she may assist in meeting the 
cost of the administration of India ; a traffic whicli 
China hates, and for the discontinuance of which 
she has often begged, for hundreds of thousands 
of Chinese, by the curse of the opium-plague, an¬ 
nually sink into an early grave.^ Now at last the 
Christian conscience of England is raising an ever- 
increasing and more general protest against this 
crying injustice.*^ How far it will be successful, 

the sods was, in a district of the North, placed at the disposal 
of the missionaries, as a token of sratitude. They at once turned 
it into a Christian church. For Mr. Forrest's report, see China’s 
IMillions, Novcouhcr, ISTD, p. UU, sqq. 

1 Cliristlieh, TIk; Indo-Rritish Opium-Trade and its Ef¬ 
fect, Pl^. 12, sqq. : ;17, sqq. ; (id, .'‘qq. 

- At tlui ('los(i of tli(! addresses on Missions at Basel, Sept. 5, 
hSTS), at the S<!V(mt]i Gcmeral Conference of the Evanselical Alli¬ 
ance, llic following resolution, proposed hy ray.self, supported 


INJURY OF THE OPIUM TRADE. 


209 


cannot be determined at present, on account of the 
difficulties in the finances of India. But the prej- 
dices against all that comes from England and so 
against English missions, which have been fostered 
by the opium-trade, are finally beginning to give 
j way, since the aid came from England to the fam¬ 
ine-stricken districts. The Cliiiiese Government 
^ instructed its ambassador in London to return 
thanks publicly to those who so philanthropically 
sent assistance. Thus-the Chinese mission in this 
respect appears increasingly hopeful. ‘"The pre¬ 
liminary quarrying of stones,” as it was often 
called, by degrees is transformed into the much- 
promising work of building. 

, .by the Rev. W. Arthur (London) and Herr Th. Necker (Geneva), 
and signed also by the Secretaries of the English Branch of the 
Evangelical Alliance, was passed unanimously: “That this Con¬ 
ference, prompted by the reports laid before it as to the present 
state of evangelical missions in China and India, expresses its 
full sympathy with the efforts for the suppression of the opium- 
traftic which have been made during many years past, and desires 
I to support the protests against this trade which from time to 
time have been raised by various evangelical and missionary 
I churches, and by many distinguished friends of Christian mis- 
I sions. 

“ The Conference unites with their English brethren in declar- 
^ ing this long-established trade to be a crying injustice against 
China, a cause of offence which deeply injures the honor of the 
' Christian name, both in Christian and heathen countries, and 
I especially an immense obstacle to the spread of Christian mis- 
i sionary work. 

' “ The Conference feels constrained to place on record its con- 

|viction that a change in the polic,y of England as regards this 
(traffic is urgently necessary, audit instructs its President to bring 
Ithis resolution to the knowledge of Her Majesty's Secretary of 
State for India.” 



210 


PROTESTANT EOREIGN MISSIONS: 


XVII. With a glance at Japan, we close thi^ 
survey of the peoples and fields of Protestani 
missionary work. Upon this “ Land of the Risinc 
Sun,” opened by the commercial treaties of 185^ 
and 1858 with England and America, the dawr 
has at length broken. Japan was first entered b}^ 
Protestant missionaries from America in 1859 and 
1860, — an ordained missionary of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, three of the Presbyterian Board, 
and three of the Reformed Church of America. 
The work began by instruction in the government 
and private schools, in which, however, it was not 
granted them at that time to give systematic re¬ 
ligious instruction.^ The public preaching of the 
gospel was also not allowed from 1852 to 1872. 
Only private instruction in the houses was per¬ 
mitted. But from the schools the Christian leaven 
began to work. Then the Scotch and American 
Bible Societies began to send their agents. Chi¬ 
nese Testaments and tracts were soon widely cir¬ 
culated. Large chests were often solddna few 
days.^ Soon after, still other American societies, 
such as the American Board of Boston, in 1869, 
the Methodist Episcopal, and, most recently, the 
“Evangelical Union” (Cleveland, O.), the Scotch 
and English Missionary Societies, entered this 

1 According to tlie Report of the Rev. Dr. Ferris (of the Re¬ 
formed Church of America) at the Mildmay Conference, p. 238, 
sqq. 

2 According to Mr. W. Slowan of the National Bible Society 
of Scotland, Ibid., p. 2G0; Ferris, p. 243. 


IN JAPAN. 


211 


field. The unprecedented quickness with which 
Japan adopted Western civilization (agreed to 
in 1869) prepared the way involuntarily for the 
spread of the gospel, and made her continually 
less able to enforce the laws formerly enacted 
against Christianity. But the baptism of the first 
converts,^ in 1865, although undisputed, remained 
for some time the only instance of the kind. 

It happened during the week of prayer in 1872, 
that some Japanese students, who had been re¬ 
ceiving instruction from the missionaries in pri¬ 
vate classes, took part in the English meeting in 
Yokohama. “After portions of the Acts of the 
Apostles had been read and explained, they fell 
on their knees, and were heard to beseech God 
with tears, that he would pour out his Spirit on 
Japan, as once he did on the first assembly of 
apostles. These prayers were characterized by 
intense earnestness ; captains of men-of-war, Eng¬ 
lish and American, who witnessed the scene, re¬ 
marked, ‘The prayers of the Japanese take the 
'leart out of us.’^ Thus the -first Protestant 
3hurch in Japan was founded. A turning point 
lad been reached.” Some who had decided for 
Z^hrist came forward with the confession of their 
aith, and in March, 1872, the first Japanese con- 
rresration *of eleven converts was constituted in 
iTokohama. Within scarcely six years these 

1 See Missionary Magazine of Basel, ISGG, p. 352. 

2 E-ev. Dr. Ferris, IMildmay Conference, p. 243. 




212 


PROTESTANT EOREIGN IMIS SIGNS I 


eleven increased to twelve hundred communicants, 
with thirty to forty congregations. Of these the 
Presbyterian Church of America has six stations ; 
these are under eight missionaries, who, in 1878, 
reported two hundred and twenty new members 
received, making in all six hundred and thirty-two 
full members.^ How much quicker the results 
here than in China! 

The missionaries of the Reformed and Presby¬ 
terian Churches of America, and the United Pres¬ 
byterians of Scotland, organized their congrega¬ 
tions into a Presbyterian Union, with a com¬ 
mon General Synod, which at the close of the 
year 1879 alread}^ included twenty congregations, 
with eleven hundred adult members. Already 
there are in the service of the Union five or six 
Japanese pastors, under the supervision of the 
missionaries, while the joint theological seminary 
has twenty-six students.^ This is now the largest 
and strongest Protestant church in Japan; and it 
is spreading, especially in the capital, Yedo (or 
now Tokio), and in Yokohama, and already con¬ 
templates extending the work to Corea. 

Of the remaining Protestants in Japan, the 
greater part are connected with the American 
Hoard in and around Osaka (south-west from 
- Yedo), Kioto (where there is a seminary under 

1 See Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the 
Presbyterian Chureh, 1879, p. 71. 

2 Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, pp. 243-244. 


IN JAPAN. 


213 


the direction of the missionaries), Kobe, and 
Okayama. In four principal and fourteen out- 
stations have been organized sixteen churches, 
twelve of them self-supporting, with five hundred 
communicants. Twelve mission^iries, three phy¬ 
sicians, thirty female missionaries, eight native 
pastors, eighteen evangelists, fourteen teachers, 
and seven Bible-women are at work. The latter 
not only work in the schools, but also take part in 
the work of evangelization, with remarkable suc¬ 
cess. To this is due the fact, so entirely unusual 
in a young mission, that there is already a com¬ 
paratively large number of native women in full 
church-membership. Delegates from this society 
(in January, 1878) formed a native missionary 
society, for the promotion of the work of evangeli¬ 
sation.^ 

The rest of the Protestant Christians are di- 
nded between the missionaries of the Protestant- 
Episcopal and Methodist-Episcopal Churches (the 
atter with seven stations: Yokohama, Tokio, Na¬ 
gasaki, Hakodate, &c., eight missionaries, forty 
lative helpers, and about four hundred mem¬ 
bers 2) ; the Baptist churches of America; also the 
Propagation (four missionaries) and Church Mis- 
iionary Societies ; the last-named having five sta- 
ions (especially Nagasaki, their oldest station, 

1 See Annual Report of the American Board, 1878, pp. 85-92. 

2 According to Annual Report of the Methodist-Episcopal 
'hurch, January, 1880, p. 161, there were 114 full members and 
rs probationers, 346 scholars, 773 Sunday-school scholars. 


214 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


then Tokio, Osaka, &c.), eight missionaries, anc 
one hundred and ninety-seven native Christians, 
and nine school sd 

The English Baptist Missionary Society is alsc 
about to begin a mission in Japan. There an 
now connected with all these missions at leas1 
thirty Christian schools for boys and girls, with 8 
thousand scholars. Almost everv mission has alsc 
an institute for the higher education of girls, and 
these institutions are very popular. The Gospeh 
have been translated into Japanese, and alread} 
distributed by tens of thousands ; and the transla 
tion of the whole New Testament is now com 
pleted. Missionaries from almost all the societies 
are on the committee for translating the Bible 
and work together. ^ A Christian weekly news 
paper is published by the American Board, anc 
circulated throughout all parts of the kingdom. 

Since 1878 the number of ordained Protestam 
missionaries, sent out by the American anc 
British Societies, has increased from ten to sixty 
six; ^ of unmarried female teachers to over forty I 
The number of organized Protestant churches ii 

1 Abstract of the Report, 1880, p. 19. 

2 The Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, p. 244; Churcl 
Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1880, p. 286. In May, 1878, i' 
general missionary conference took place in Tokio, chiefly witi 
a view to introduce a uniform translation of the Bible. 

8 Inclusive of the,missionaries’ wives, the medical missiona 
ries, and the independent female teachers, the total number o 
American and European workers is already over a hundred an< 
sixty. See Missionary Herald, November, 1879, p. 441, 


DOWNFALL OF THE OLD RELIGION. 


215 


sixty-four, of which twelve are wholly and twenty- 
six partly self-supporting, with a total of two 
thousand five hundred and sixty-one adult com¬ 
municants and about seven thousand Christians. 
These are everywhere being trained to self-support 
and personal activity. About twelve ordained na¬ 
tive preachers and a hundred and fifty catechists 
and other native helpers are at work in thirty-five 
chief and sixty-five out-stations. There are three 
theological seminaries wherein already a hundred 
and seventy-three young men are being trained for 
the ministry.^ All this, be it remembered, has 
taken place in a land, the government of which, in 
the seventeenth century, after the expulsion of 
the Portuguese and the massacre of the native 
(Catholic) converts, prohibited all Christians, 
under pain of death, from entering the kingdom, 
and in an open proclamation declared that even if 
the king of Portugal, “ or the God of the Chris¬ 
tians himself, should transgress this law, he would 
pay the penalty with his head.” Now ruined 
Buddhist temples furnish the materials for the 
erection of Christian churches.*^ Christianity has 

1 According to the statistics of the General Missionary Con- 
‘erence in Tokio, in 1878. See Church Missionary Intelligencer, 
lanuary, 1879, p. 58; Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 
i!36. Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, p. 243, estimated the 
Aggregate number of Japanese Protestant Christians, in 1878, at 
ibout five thousand. The rapid increase of church-members is 
l^roved by the following figures: In 1872, 20; 1875,538; 1876, 1,004. 

2 Der christliche Apologete, May 5, 1879; Der christliche Bot- 
ichafter, Oct. 15, 1879. 

J 

I 



216 


’ PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


pressed even into the State prisons, and is being^^ 
considered more and more a means of reforma¬ 
tion d i^m 

But the land is still far from being everywhere 
opened. Missionaries and foreigners generally are 
confined, for places of residence, to the few townsii 
mentioned in the treaties. In order to settle in| 
other places, a special permission — which is often 
granted — must be obtained. The old laws against 
Christianity have not yet been rescinded, and the 
distrust of strangers is clearly manifest among the 
ruling classes.^ The Buddhist clergy, provoked 
by the missionary zeal of the young Christian 
congregations, are about to send missionaries to 
Europe and America for the spread of Buddhism, 
as a counter attack,^ for which some of our modern 
philosophers are preparing the way to the best 
of their ability. A Russo-Greek mission also is 
advancing farther and farther in the North, and 
already has three thousand converts. But espe¬ 
cially among the educated classes here, as in India, 
it is the scepticism, imported by irreligious Ameri¬ 
can and European teachers into the state schools 
and universities of Japan, which already rules 
with its baneful influences, and is everywhere 

^ Annual Report of American Board, 1878, p. 87; Evangelistic 
Missionary Magazine, September, 1879, p, oSS;sqq. 

2 Annual Report of Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby¬ 
terian Church, 1879, p. 72, sqq, 

8 C/. Allgemeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeitung, 
April 11,1879, p. 359; May 11, p. 10. 



BUDDHISM BATTLING FOR LIFE. 


217 


making rapid progress.^ The priests of the old 
religious systems are scoffed at; but there is a new 
and serious hinderance here to the reception of the 
gospel. Our old battle of the Church at home, 
between faith and unbelief, must be fought over 
afresh, in this extreme frontier of the Church, 
upon the ground of heathen civilization. Still the 
general impression from this young mission is a 
very hopeful one. Since the suppression, by the 
government, of a dangerous rebellion, missionary 
enterprise and reform ^ are now quietly going on 
their way. When, therefore, in a land upon the 
throne of which the family of the iMikado, in spite 
of one or two storms, has sat in one unbroken line 
for twenty-five centuries (a circumstance without 
parallel in history, even in that of China), a coun¬ 
try which will not therefore easily make a change,'^ 
— when with such a land before our eyes we see, 
within a few years, so many new influences making 

1 Cf. the remarkable address by a Japanese candidate on Sci¬ 
entific Education in Japan: Missionary Herald, October, 1879, 
pp, 365-370. 

2 According to the most recent proclamation of the Prime 
Minister, “ the religion of Japan is no longer to be looked upon 
as a particular and large partition of the state, but merely as a 
branch of the ministry of the interior” (Allgenieine ev. luth. 
Kirchen-Zeitung, November, 1879, p. 1077) ; which very probably 
sic^nifies the gradual withdrawal of government support, and ac- 
cordingly the riiin of the old religions of the land. 

3 Cf. specially the treatise by the Rev. Dr. Clark, Ten Years 
in Japan: Missionary Herald, November, 1879, p. 435, .'>• 77 ., and p. 
442. The present emperor of Japan is the 121st of Ins line. See 
H. Stevenson, Our Mission in the East, 1878, p. 8 . 


218 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


way, and among them the gospel taking such deep 
root, we may, looking upon Japan as also upon 
the whole field of evangelical missions, exclaim 
with thanks to God, “ Yes, the da}^ is breaking.” 


DUTIES AND AIMS OF THE FUTURE. 219 


IV. 

ONE OR TWO HINTS AND WISHES WITH REGARD 
• TO THE DUTIES AND AIMS OF THE IMMEDI¬ 
ATE FUTURE. 

These, as they have pressed upon us during 
our long journeying through the many forms of 
Protestant missionary work, particularly in con¬ 
sideration of the relations of the various societies 
to each other, claim our special attention. 

The present condition of the missionary work 
shows without question, that those who prosecute 
it have already learned much, and also that they 
have yet much more to learn. 

I. And, first of all, may the friends of missions 
at home remember, in pronouncing judgment on 
the present method of operating missions, that the 
work is the greatest and most difficult on earth. 
If, on a question of missionary enterprise, even a 
Paul and a Barnabas could separate, “in sharp 
contention” (Acts xv. 39), we should not be 
astonished if at the present day among Christians 
the opinions as to the means and instruments, the 
ways and methods of work, should often differ 
widely. Nor must we forget that every mission 
field demands its special kind of treatment. 
Rules of general application can only be stated 


220 PROTESTANT FOREIGN .MISSIONS : 

here theoretically, but not easily put in practice. 
]\Iany a good friend of missions has, as more than 
one director of mission boards has complained to 
me, only rendered the work more difficult by 
his well-meant suggestions. Whoever has looked 
deeply and correctly into the difficulties connected 
with the prosecution of missions will guard him¬ 
self against rashly making new proposals, espe¬ 
cially such as would part with methods now be¬ 
come historical. New experiments in the mission- 
field, as in education, are, for the most part, dearly 
bought. And how often do these arise from an 
impatience, which forgets the word, Deus liahet 
sitas Jioras et moras^ and does not keep enough in 
the true path of support, “ In quietness and confi¬ 
dence shall be your strength.” Whoever seeks to 
encourage an interest in the kingdom of God at 
home, soon aids the work also abroad. The 
friends of missions, for example, could and ought 
to exercise a more powerful influence on the local 
press than heretofore, by sending in more inter¬ 
esting and more authentic reports.^ 

As to the relation of theology, especially of 
practical theology, to missions, I shall be silent 
here in regard to the great duty of developing 
a science of missions. It is, as far as princi¬ 
ples and technical methods of teaching are con¬ 
cerned, still in a preparatory state. The stones 

1 This, too, is the opinion of Warneck, Belehnng'des Missions- 
sinnes, p. 70. 


PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 


991 


for building are just being gatliered. A syste¬ 
matic comparison of the present methods used in 
missions is not now practicable, since a great part 
of the requisite material has not been collected. 
It is very desirable that at least all the great mis¬ 
sionary societies should publish, and so make ac- 
. ■ cessible, the principles of their methods of work, 
and the most important rules which they on the 
ground ot their long experience have given to 
their agents. The Church Missionary Society,^ 
the American Board,^ and the American Baptist 
Union,2 for example, have begun to do this. 

Thus only can the science of practical theology 
obtain reliable material to work upon, and thereby 
exercise an entirely different influence upon the 
development of preaching and evangelistic work 
from that heretofore exercised. But young theo¬ 
logians, at least in Germany, easily concentrate 
their attention upon some question of detail, par¬ 
ticularly an historical one, often of no importance : 
indeed, they are often accustomed to measure the 
wliole progress of theology, by some new small 
discovery or hypothesis of scliolars, without ever 
having had their attention called to the progress 

1 See A Brief View of the Principles and Proceedings of the 
Church Missionary Society, new edition, May, 1877. 

2 See Missionarj^ Tracts, No. 1, The Theory of Missions to the 
Heathen; and No. 15, Outline of Missionary Policy, &c. 

3 See, e. g., the Reports of a special Committee of the Execu¬ 
tive Committee of the Missionary Union, March and November, 
1878. 


222 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 

of the Church of Christ as a whole. They should, 
in our time, have the broad and true idea of the 
kingdom of God set before them as never before, 
so that they may take with them into the ministe¬ 
rial office a livelier interest in the spread of the 
gospel, and no longer consider the assistance given 
in the congregation (through missionary meetings, 
&c.) as an ojms supererogationis. The command 
of the Lord reaches beyond what is prescribed in 
the forms of the Church as indispensable. 

II. In the relations of different societies to each 
other, many things which I have observed compel 
me to express a wish, which I must put here in 
the form of an earnest entreaty, that the societies 
would seek more to learn from each other than 
heretofore. The experiences of one are not val¬ 
ued nearly high enough by another. Many look 
almost nowhere else for experience to guide their 
practice, but to the history of their own society. 
Hence the disinclination of the Episcopal Church 
of England to take special notice of the mission¬ 
ary literature and practice of the Nonconformists, 
has already led to numerous failures, as well as 
the repetition of mistakes, — mistakes from which 
no lessons had been drawn. And, without doubt, 
the same has liappened vice versa. Livingstone 
says of a High Church bishop in the mission in 
South Africa, At home his sectarian prejudices 
seem to have prevented his acquiring any knowl- 


BETTER ACQUAINTANCE OF SOCIETIES. 223 

edge of missionary work; and he begins with a 
poor savage, as pitiably ignorant of native charac¬ 
ter as if no one had ever penned his experience 
in such matters.” i A bishop of the Propagation 
Society, a few years ago, made a journey into Swa¬ 
ziland (South-east Africa), and thought that he 
- was the first one who had sought to bring the gos¬ 
pel to this stalwart people. He seemed never to 
have heard of the successful labors of Allison, or 
the travels of Merensky and Hardeland, in this 
district.^ 

And it is because often the missionaries of dif¬ 
ferent societies know, or care to know, so little 
about each other, that — here and there, at least — 
there is not that cordiality between them in the 
work, which there should be. In particular, the 
societies of different lands often take but little 
notice of each other, especially if the diversity in 
languages forms a barrier, since the overcoming of 
it is particularly difficult for our good friends from 
England, in spite of their annual excursions on 
the Khine and into Switzerland. It m'ay be said, 
with nearly perfect truth, that what is not trans¬ 
lated into their language is not in existence for 
them. Most certainly every society has enough 
and more than enough to do with its own affairs; 
each must have its own periodicals which serve its 

1 Missionary Sacrifices: The Catholic Presbyterian, No. 1, Jan¬ 
uary, 1879. 

See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 202. 





224 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


own cause, and report first of all the work of its 
own missionaries. But there is surely a common 
interest for all. It is therefore not an unreasona¬ 
ble demand, that, at least, the larger and more 
scientifically conducted missionary magazines of 
the great societies should seek, in addition to 
reporting the missionary work of their own par¬ 
ticular society or denomination, to present to the 
public more fully the entire work of evangelical 
missions, in order to open the eyes of Christian 
people in general to its grand extent, so as to 
transform the sectarian interest into an interest 
for the whole kingdom of God. This is being 
done in Germany by the “ Evangelisches Missions- 
Magazin,” and the “ Allgemeine Missions Zeit- 
schrift.” 

But how astonishingly little attention have the 
large missionary magazines in the English lan¬ 
guage paid, for instance, to the work of the Ger¬ 
mans ! 1 wish to expose no one to ridicule ; but 
what blunders of ignorance as to all non-English 
missionary liistory are often to be found in the 
large English and American works on missions! 
What is to be said, when in the catalogue of the 
literature given by the English General IMission- 
ary EncyclopEedia,” the mention of German works 
is almost entirely wanting ? How seldom — with¬ 
out doubt, through too great press of work — do 
the secretaries and directors of the great societies ^ 

1 Those of the American Board of Boston forma praiseworthy- 
exception, It is to be hoped that there are others still. 


MISSIONARY CONFERENCES. 


endeavor to gain a general knowledge of the pres¬ 
ent Protestant mission work, wliicli in their posi- 
3^ e»-nal)le ! Peginiiiiigs of improve¬ 
ment in this direction have been made, throimh 
the great General Missionary Conferences, in New 
lork, 1854, then more especial^ in Jhverpool, 
London, Allahabad, Shanghai, and on the Euro¬ 
pean Continent in Bremen. Thev liave all Mveii 

O 

cheering testimony to the fact, that the brotherly 
meeting together of the separated workers of vari¬ 
ous societies results in an increase of strength for 
all.i 

Let sucli conferences be kept up, at proper in¬ 
tervals, for they give blessings and encouragement 
to the work both at home and abroad. I must 
also speak here in praise of the fact, that the 
directors of nearly all the Protestant missionary 
societies in London meet together once a month for 
prayer and exchange of thought upon missionary 
questions. By this means much controversy is 
either avoided or nipped in the bud, and offensive 
thrusting forward of denominational peculiarities 
and interests is prevented. Similar monthly re¬ 
unions of missionaries are held in Madras, Cal¬ 
cutta, and Bombay. 

With regard to missionary literature and maga¬ 
zines I suppress many other wishes. In Germany 

1 Cf. the address delivered by the late Dr. Mullens, on The 
Increased Co-operation of Missionary Agencies, Mildmay Con¬ 
ference, pp. 22-27; Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 180. 


226 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN ISriSSIONS: 


for a long time (and here and there even to-day' 
such publications were in no way up to the timej 
in outward form and style, a serious obstacle tc 
^their circulation among the educated. In regarc 
to their contents, the warning has often beer 
given against all indulgence in over-coloring, anc 
“the serving-up of sweetmeats, which are enti 
cing and delicate, but apt to sj)oil the stomach,” ■ 
with the request to confine themselves to the 
strictest moderation and objectiveness. Such re¬ 
quests are still not superfluous, especially in regard 
to England and America. The endeavor to pre¬ 
sent to the reader only that which is most inter¬ 
esting and exciting not only destroys the taste of 
many of the friends of missions (c/*. the reading 
public of America, so greedy of sensational news), 
but leads to entirely uncritical and unwarranta¬ 
ble embellishments, which put dangerous weapons 
into the hands of the enemies of the present sys¬ 
tem of missions. There is, however, in recent 
popular missionary narratives, an advance from 
the former unthinking enthusiasm to greater mod- 
eration.2 

It is particularly desirable for the missionary 
historian, that there should be more uniformity in 
dealing with the tabular statistics of missions, in 

1 See, e.g., Graul ; Naehrichten der ostindisehen Missions- 
Anstalt, 1807, pp. 108-170. 

^ Cj. Dr. Ralkar’s observations in his Geseliichte der christ- 
lichen Mission unter den Heiden, recently published. Preface, 
i., pp. V, vi. 


THE PUBLISHING OF STATISTICS. 227 

the compiling of which, very diverse principles 
prevail among the different societies,^ both in 
regard to the quantity of statistics given, and the 
mode of calculation and classification. Many 
annual reports, from principle, give scarcely any 
figures: others deal too much with statistics. In 
’ the first case, the laborers in some of the stations, 
under certain circumstances, are incited too little 
to‘effort; in the other they are incited too much 
to use every exertion, oidy that at a particular 
time in every year, they may show an increase in 
numbers. AVould it not be better if each society, 
say every five years, were to publish the exact 
statistics of their condition, with detailed reports; 
whilst in the annual reports, only the more im¬ 
portant results of the preceding year would be 
chronicled along with the budget? 

Now, I have a request to make of several 
INIethodist and Baptist missionary societies, in 
regard to their annual reports, in which I know 
that I speak the mind of many. I shall subjoin it 
to one made formerly,^ but not yet granted. It is, 
that in their reports, they should make a sharper 

1 See also Grundemann’s remarks in the collected documents 
of the Evangelical Alliance in New York, 1873, p. 592. 

2 At the meeting of the Alliance in New York, I requested 
that they should, at least, appoint “the preachers and evangel¬ 
ists, whom they sent to Protestant countries, to such places 
where the pure gospel is not preached, where the church of the 
country either does not do her duty, or else has not as yet been 
able to do so for want of laborers.” Cf. my letter to the Christ- 
licher Botschafter (Cleveland), dated January 21, 1874. 


228 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : 


distinction between missions in heathen lands and 
evanfielization in Christian countries! It cannot 
but cause pain or give offence, when, e.g., often 
upon one page there is an account of the missions 
in New Zealand and Polynesia, and upon the fol¬ 
lowing of those in France and Germany; or when 
missions in Norway and Italy are sandwiched be¬ 
tween those of Southern India and Japan; or 
when on the list of agents A B figures as a mis¬ 
sionary among the Zulus or Papuans, and C D 
beside him as missionary in Wiirtemberg or Switz¬ 
erland ! 

III. It is further apparent how important and 
desirable in the interest of missions, indeed, for 
the character of the Evangelical Church in gen¬ 
eral, is the endeavor toward greater uniformity of 
practice in questions which are not purely of a 
confession of faith or of denominational pecul¬ 
iarities ; for example, in the treatment of caste 
(see above), of polygamy, slavery, and as far as 
possible in the matter of baptism, especially with 
societies working together in the same territory. 
As this, however, is not always possible on ac¬ 
count of difference in dogmatical and ecclesiasti¬ 
cal views, an attempt at least should be made for 
a peaceable division of the field of labor, and to 
come to a friendly understanding upon that first 
principle of missionary courtesy, never to press 
into another society’s sphere of labor, unless called 


PKACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 


229 


U) help draw in the gospel net. This principle 
also should be impressed upon private mission¬ 
aries, that with friendly help they should give at 
least moral support to the laborers of neighboring 
societies. The complaints of the violation of this 
2:>rinciple, on the part of the missionaries pf the 
Propagation Society, unfortunately have not yet 
ceased. 

A very frequent source of distrust and mis¬ 
understanding between the representatives of the 
different societies is the wrong position which a 
new society takes, in beginning its work upon a 
new field (which applies equally to the work of 
evangelization in Christian lands). In order to 
advance as rapidly as i^ossible, and be able soon to 
show some results to impatient friends at home, 
a newly started mission often has too little care 
as to the character of the members received into 
its communion, and the native workers employed. 
Those who have been excluded from other mis¬ 
sions, or who are under church-discipline, gather 
around the messenger of the new society, and in a 
short time a whole congregation is formed out of 
such elements. Sometimes, indeed, agents who 
have been dismissed from other stations may be 
found here in important positions, with large sal¬ 
aries. How necessary that there should be a 
previous brotherly understanding with the repre¬ 
sentatives of the older societies! How desirable 
that here, and in many other cases, the special 


230 


PKOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


denominational interests should be made entirely 
secondary to the one great common task of bring¬ 
ing, in peace and without offence, salvation to the 
heathen ! that is, apart from the immediate gain 
to their own particular church, and simply for 
the sake of Christ’s kingdom, to rejoice, without 
envy or jealousy, in tlie success of a neighbor! Is 
not this command given especially to the mes¬ 
sengers of Christ: “ Look not everv man on his 
own things, but every man also on the things of 
others ” ? He who seeks honestly and unselfishly 
the good of others, really cares best for his own 
interests. 

It is of course true — as the history of missions 
clearly proves — that each denomination considers 
itself relatively the most perfect in confession, 
worship, and constitution. But let no society 
thrust prominently forward simply its one peculiar 
charisma^ its special gifts and mission, without 
acknowledging also, in Christian humility and mod¬ 
esty, its bounds, the limits of its ecclesiastical 
power and capabilities, which often begin just 
where the special charisma of another denomina¬ 
tion ends. Thus it will learn its capacities and 
needs.^ Just as, in a parliament, the deputies are 
not simply to represent the special interests of 
their own districts, but are first of all to seek the 
common good of the whole land, so “ Christ’s rep- 

1 See Christlieb, Der Missionsberuf des evangelischen 
Deutsclilands, pp. 15-32. 


PRACTICAL ORSERVATIONS. 231 

resentatives,” the missionaries, must not look after 
the affairs of their own church merely, but of the 
whole kingdom of Christ. Though there may be 
many divisions, there is but one army, under one 
Leader, against one foe. May, then, the directors 
of the various Protestant missionary societies, 
while justly holding fast to. the peculiar excel¬ 
lences of their own particular church, impress 
upon the hearts of their missionaries this idea, in 
order that with all due self-assertion, there may 
also always be united, true self-denial and Avell- 
wishing carefulness for others! 

With this true evangelical liberality toward 
other fellow-laborers ^ stands another fact, immedi¬ 
ately connected, as above hinted, — the wisdom in 
teaching, with respect for the national cliaracter 
and customs of the heathen, so far as tliese are 
justifiable. Missionaries should learn in the mis¬ 
sion-work, more than they have as yet, to accom¬ 
modate the peculiarities of their denominations in 
respect to forms of worship and constitution, to 
the character and needs of the heathen people with 
whom they labor — should seek first of all to sat¬ 
isfy these, and not the sectarian fanatics at home, 
who would at all costs make even the smallest 

f 

1 It is very cheering to hear that the Lutheran mission, too, 
exhorts to this: e. g., “ Nachrichten der ostindischen Mission- 
Anstatt zur Halle, 1870, p. 13: “ Teach Lutheran friends of mis¬ 
sions to rejoice in the extension of the kingdom of God on the 
wide 'world, whoever it he that preaches Christ; that is true lib¬ 
erality and many-sidedness.” 


232 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 


details incumbent on tlie heathen converts. It 
may appear evident after a time, that one heathen 
people according to its whole natural disposition 
and history, its customs and habits of life, may 
have an inner predisposition for this, another for 
that, evangelical form of worship and constitution, 
while for a third, in course of time, an entirely 
new ecclesiastical form or combination of forms 
must be developed^ It is precisely from this 
point of view that the numerous divisions of the 
Protestant churclies and their missions appear as a 
blessing. With the manifold variety of our eccle¬ 
siastical forms, we are prepared to meet the differ¬ 
ent peculiarities and wants of the heathen nations; 
and, if we possess enough wisdom and self-denial, 
we can give the gospel to each, in the ecclesiasti¬ 
cal form best adapted to it, and with the liberty 
necessaiy to its development. Therefore let each 
division of the Protestant Church seek out the 
field of labor for which it is most gifted, and so 
to wdiich it has the strongest call! Then will the 
manifold gifts and powers of the different denom¬ 
inations, without being mixed, but in brotherly 
combination, form them into one imperial army, 
able to carry on a mission truly ecumenical and 
universal. For it is not this or that church form, 
but only the gospel of the kingdom, which has 

1 Cf., e.g., the peculiar comhination of a Congregational and 
Preslnderian constitution in the numerous mission congrega¬ 
tions of the American Board iu Turkey. See above. 


TYPE OF THE MISSIONARIES NEEDED. 233 . 


the promise of eternal duration and extension 
throughout the whole world. 

But for this there is more need, and, even in 
respect to the question of funds, it is the chief 
requisite for the future, — of better quality than 
greater quantity in the missionaries sent out. A 
few self-sacrificing missionaries baptized with the 
Holy Ghost, with keen, precautions sagacity and 
firm will, who earnestly wish to become acquainted 
with the people, because, in spite of their eiiors, 
they love them, and bear them about on their 
Pearts, — these are of more value, and obtain 
more enduring results, than many who are only 
half capable. Tliey, as men somewhat of an 
apostolic type, will have wisdom and tact enough 
to respect the peculiarities of the people, and so, 
from the first, establish only what is absolutely 
necessary, leaving room enough for the natives, 
with their numerous, justifiable race character¬ 
istics, to develop in the future an heathen-Chris- 
tian church, which in its own way will also con¬ 
tribute glory to the one great Head of the Church. 
jT^irther, — and this is our other ceterum censeo, 
especially for the German missions, — the mis¬ 
sionaries should incite with all their power the 
heathen-Christian churches, inasmuch as they are 
to form a special link in the long chain of mothei 
and daughter churches for all the future, to self- 
support, both as regards means and native talent. 
Thus the work of evangelization introduced from 


234 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: 

without will gradually become indigenous, and 
with self-support the way will be opened for self¬ 
extension through missionary operations, without 
extraneous aid. 

1 es, thank God! our century is a century of 
missions, the like of which has never been. In it, 
the age of the world-embracing mission has begun. 
l\Iore than all the generations on whose dust we 
tread, we can to-day take up the psalm, “ All the 
ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our 
God! ” 

“ I have,” said the Rev. IMr. Parkhurst, not 
long ago, after he had made a journey round the 
wmrld, “ nowhere seen a new heathen temple; they 
weie all old and dilapidated.” AVhat cheering 
news for the friends of missions! But what a 
responsibility rests at such a time upon the home 
churches, which God has so highly honored, in 
that he has thrown the gates so wide open, trust¬ 
ing to the Christians of the present to hear his 
loice, understp,nd his beckoning, and follow him ! 
And though the abundance of forces and the 
present great staff of workers, which Protestant 
Christendom has placed in the field to accomplish 
this work, ma}’" seem to some to be sufficient; to 
the magnitude of the task,i to the thousands of 
millions of unconverted heathen and ^lohamme- 
dans, they are a perpetual mis- 2 ?roportio 7 i, Wlien, 

1 See, too, the treatise. The Wide Work and Great Claims of 
Modern Protestant Missions. Mildmay Conference, p. 407, sqq. 


PEACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 


235 


a short time ago, the missionary secretary of the 
Irish Presbyterian Church -mentioned above, Mr. 
Fleming Stevenson, returned from his journey 
round the world, in which he visited all the prin¬ 
cipal mission fields, he exclaimed with deep emo¬ 
tion, in a large meeting, “ If only j)eople would 
think of the tremendous magnitude of the mission 
work to the Brahmins, the Buddhists, the Moham¬ 
medans, with all their power of culture and all 
their literary attainments, and with their ingenuity 
and sub til ty, they would never have dreamed of 
fighting them with those slight forces which all 
the churches together sent out! ” ^ Let us carry 
away with us also, from our survey of the world 
to-day, this rebuke for our great lukewarmness 
and neglect in the cause of missions! 

One more incentive, in view of the condition of 
things at home. The preaching of the kingdom 
to all the heathen world is accompanied to-day, to 
a great extent, by a decline of faith in Christen¬ 
dom. That word of the Lord, “ This gospel of 
the kingdom shall be preached in all the world 
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the 
end come ” (Matt, xxiv.), follows immediately 
after the mention of the false prophets, who 
should deceive many ; of the abounding of iniquity, 
and the love of many waxing cold. If this double 
process — the spread of faith abroad, and at the 

1 See the Transactions of the United Presbyterian Synod in 
Scotland, 1879; e.g., Daily Review, May 8, 1879, p. 6. 


236 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN JNIISSIONS : 


same time the declension of faith and love in 
many places at home — is, and is becoming more 
and more, the sign of our time, then we need mis¬ 
sions to-day, more than ever, for the defence of 
Christianity in the times before the end. 

The sword of attack is at the same time the 
shield that defends. Missions, that is to say, the 
embodied courage of the Church, the touchstone 
of her faith, ot her unchanging hope; missions, 
that is to say, the world-subduing Christianity of 
deed, of witness-bearing, of self-sacrificing love, — 
are their own best apology; and therefore we 
need tliem more and more. They must confirm 
the promises of Scripture, and so help confound 
the attacks made upon the Divine Word. They 
must help to expose the foolishness of all merely 
earthly wisdom, the wisdom according to the 
flesh; be it that which makes a god of this world, 
or that which despairs of the world and life; all 
speculation of the mere present, all conceit and 
selfishness. And they must aid in proving un¬ 
answerably the superiority of the gospel ancl true 
Christian culture, over all merely human means of 
education. Yes: missions are called upon, under 
the guidance of God, to solve maii}^ a problem 
which is too difficult for the politicians of our 
day. 

What is doing most to-day toward the solution 
of the dark Indian question in America? The 
gospel and missions. What will best solve the 


PRACTICAL OBSERVATIOXS. 


237 


Eastern question, and tliose relating to East India 
and China beginning to appear 'behind it ? The 
gospel and missions; the spirit of Christ, that is, 
the spirit of serving and saving, of life-giving 
love! 

But it is high time that Christendom in general 
should be" more fully aAvare of this, and that all 
colonial governments should at last clearly per¬ 
ceive that their former, and in many cases present, 
indifference and hostility toward missions, has 
brought upon them heavy loss, in influence and 
respect; yes, of men and money, which a Chris¬ 
tian and sympathetic attitude toward missions 
would have saved them. If we believe in the 
destroying power of sin, we cannot deny that the 
longer we leave the heathen to themselves, the 
deeper they must sink. Many tribes are dying 
out to-day; not a few are already dead, and their 
death will be a heavy charge against a mission-less 
Christianity.^ 

But, along with such rebukes and incentives to 
zeal in the kingdom of our Lord, let us take with 
us also the great consolation, that the work goes 
forward to-day as never before; that the Lord 
is opening a way for his cause, in many places, 
more plainly than ever before; often, even, using 
our mistakes to further it. The nearer the end 
comes, the more rapid the development. 

The period of world-wide missions, on the com- 

1 Christliel), Foreign Missions. 





238 


PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS. 


men cement of which we have entered, will be the 
last. If, in the history of missions, there have 
been times now and then, when the development 
long prepared for seemed to hasten and to mock 
the former slowness of its course; in our age of 
universal missions, it will appear, ever more wide¬ 
ly, that the slow and tiresome work of undermin¬ 
ing the chief strongholds of heathenism must lead 
soon to a tremendous crash. Without wishino’ in 

O 

the least to bring the set time nearer, may we not 
say in looking, not only at the South Seas and 
America, but also at Africa, India, China, and 
Japan, that, in spite of our errors and Aveaknesses, 
we are approaching the time when a harvest will 
be gathered, AAdnch will infinitely surpass all pre¬ 
vious proportions? Wait a little longer, and the 
full day will break; already the shadoAvs flee 
aAvay, and the gloAV of morning shoots atliAvart the 
sky ! And therefore for our oAvn encouragement, 
in prayer and in firm faith, Ave call out to the 
heathen Avorld: “ Arise, shine; for thy light is 
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
thee! ” Yea, “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come! 
And let him that heareth say, Come! Amen, even 
so, come. Lord Jesus ! ” 


ADDENDA. 


[Several notes from the fourth German edition, which have 
overrun the pages, are placed here.] 

Medical Missionaries, p. 76. — As a result of this 
appeal, a gentleman in Basel has recently placed five 
thousand francs at the disposal of the Basel Missionary 
Society, with the promise to repeat the gift for four years 
in order to educate a physician, and send him into the 
mission. The Continental Missions-Konferenz’in Bremen 
(May, 1880) was also occupied with this question. 

Woman’s Boards, p. 77. — Compare, for example, the 
W^oman’s Board of Missions (which, under its own manage¬ 
ment, co-operates with the American Board in Boston), and 
others in connection with various missionary societies ; also 
the Woman’s Union Missionary Society in San Francisco, 
which has schools for the Chinese children in that city; the 
Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen 
Lands, which publishes a bi-monthly journal; the Mission¬ 
ary Link for the Woman’s Union, etc. (New York : 41 Bible 
House). See Illustrated Missionary News, February, 1880, 
pp. 15, 24. 

Moravian Missions among the Papuans, p. 81. — 
The missionaries of the Hermannsburg Society have re¬ 
cently completed, with wonderful courage, their settlement, 
called Hermannsburg, in Central Australia, and are now 
engaged in translating into the Aldulinga language. It 

239 



240 


ADDENDA. 


seems very difficult to reach the natives there. See 
Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, May, 1880, p. 239. 

New Guinea, p. 83.—With its exceedingly unhealthy 
climate. New Guinea is not yet a field white to the harvest, 
but hard, and requiring many sacrifices for sowing the 
seed, yet a land where already a few first fruits have 
ripened; partly in the islands lying before it, especially in 
Murray Island ; partly along the coasts of the mainland. 
There have been founded, mainly by the London societies, 
thirty stations; four languages have been given a litera¬ 
ture, and the Gospel of Mark has been translated into one 
of them. See Macfarlane, p. 139. 

The union of the leading Holland (Rotterdam) Society 
with modern liberal elements, the need of money that led to 
it, the offer of the missionary schools to the government, 
which has now established its own non-religious schools 
with high-priced teachers, so that the Christian schools could 
have less and less sympathy, produces a great crisis. See 
Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, May, 1880, p. 235, sqq. 

Samoan Islands, p. 85. — Of the population of the 
Samoan Islands, in which the Germans especially are inter¬ 
ested (thirty-four thousand two hundred and sixty-five), 
according to the last census (1875), twenty-six thousand 
four hundred and ninety-three belong to the London Mis¬ 
sionary Society, forty-seven hundred and ninety-four to the 
Wesleyan, twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two to the Roman 
Catholic. See Missionary Herald (Boston), February, 1880, 
p. 65. 

Dutch Guiana, p. 97. — Recently the Moravians have 
sent two missionaries to the Bush negroes, toward Gansee, 
where, since 1850, no European missionary has been sta¬ 
tioned. See Missionsblatt der Briidergemeinde, 1880, No. 3. 
Concerning the later deplorable disturbance in the con¬ 
gregation at Paramaribo, through one of their missionaries, 
compare Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, May, 1880, p. 233, 
sqq. 


ADDENDA. 


241 


Missions in Africa, p. 102. — Already in England a 
new auxiliary missionary society for the promotion of native 
missionary activity in Africa—“The Native African Mis¬ 
sions Aid Association” —has been founded by Major Malan, 
who was formerly actively engaged as an evangelist in 
South Africa. This society publishes a quarterly journal, 
“ Africa.” 

p. 103. — For the latest good news respecting the over¬ 
throw of superstition, and increasing attendance on the 
service of God, see Baptist Herald, 1880, p. 57, sqq. 

The English Primitive Methodist Connection have sta¬ 
tions upon the Spanish island Fernando Po, and are seeking 
energetically to carry on the work begun there by the 
Baptists, in spite of the hinderances of the Spanish laws. 
See the annual report of this society. May, 1880, in the 
Christian World, May 18, 1880, p. 1, sqq. 

p. 109. — The recent attempt of the Catholic mission 
a Zambesi expedition to force its way into the London mis¬ 
sion stations among the Bamangwatos was summarily turned 
back by the Protestant king Khame, who, through the la¬ 
bors of the missionary Mr. Mackenzie, of the London 
Society, has become a decided champion of the gospel, and 
is described as a sagacious ruler. The last Zulu war 
created much disturbance among the related Matebeles, 
whereby the strengthening of the stations of the London 
Society among this people — at all times difficult to maintain 
on account of the general fear of the despotic chief — will be 
rendered still more difficult. See Evangelical Missionary 
Magazine, January, 1880, p. 7, sqq.; March, p. 127. For 
further particulars concerning King Khame, see the interest¬ 
ing pamphlet by J. Mackenzie, “Ten Years North-of the 
Orange River: ” Edinburgh, 1871. Also, London Mission- 
|ary Society’s Report for 1879, p. 39; and Chronicle of the 
London Missionary Society, June, 1880, p. 123, and January, 
p. 14, sqq. 

1 p. 110- — The Berlin missionaries were able, during the 



242 


ADDENDA. 


year 1879 alone, to baptize twelve hundred and sixty-foui 
persons ; that is, a few more than in the first thirty years ol 
their labors all told. They teach twenty-four hundred 
children in their schools. Recently considerable territory 
has been given to this society for the establishing of more 
missionary stations in the captured Sekukuni’s country, as 
a token of gratitude for the services which many Christians 
connected with the mission gave as nurses for the sick 
during the war. Hence the outlook for the decided exten¬ 
sion of this mission is at present very favorable. The 
stations relinquished for a time have almost all been occu¬ 
pied again. See Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, May, 
1880, p. 234, sqq. 

p. 113. — In the city Aliwal, north on the Orange River, 
the important terminus of the railroad now being con¬ 
structed from Algoa Bay to this river, the Society of the 
English Primitive IMethodist Connection has been at work 
for a number of years near the Dutch Reformed, among the 
Basutos and Fingoes, and has a flourishing mission, with one 
hundred and twenty-six full church-members and six native 
local preachers. See Report of IMissionary J. Smith, The 
Christian World, May 18, 1880, p. 2. 

Madagascar, p. 116. — The Missionary Union of the 
Quakers was organized in England in 1865, and entered 
the work in Madagascar in 1867. Along with their congrega¬ 
tion of five hundred Christians in the capital, there are now 
‘under the care of the Quaker missionaries and their twenty- 
one native evangelists, one hundred and eight rural congre¬ 
gations, with thirty-two hundred and fifty church-members 
and twenty-six thousand Christians,'eighty-five schools, with 
about three thousand male and female scholars. 

The Blantyre Mission, p. 118.—Much less encoura¬ 
ging news reaches us from the Scottish State Church Mission 
in Blantyre, on the east side of Murchison Cataract in the 
Shire Mountains, south of Lake Nyassa; where the mission¬ 
aries, by taking the law into their own hands and inflicting 


ADDENDA. 


243 


punishments upon the natives, seem to have lost the confi¬ 
dence of the natives. See Christian Express, Lovedale, 
Dec. 1, 1879. May all the pioneers not change the Chris¬ 
tianization of the land into the Anglicizing of it by instruc¬ 
tion in the English language ! 

Incited by these Scotch missions, an English-Scotch trad¬ 
ing company, Livingstonia Central-Africa Company, has 
been formed, which navigates the Shire with steamers, and 
is seeking to make direct communication between the coast 
and Lake Nyassa. 

Jesuits in Uganda, p. 119.—By calumniating the 
Protestant form of worship as false, and making great diffi¬ 
culties, the Jesuits have completely deceived the capricious 
king as to their intention, and are trying by all means to 
win his favor; so that a part of the English have been 
obliged to withdraw for a time. Many other signs also 
show that the Evangelical Mission in South and Central 
Africa will have a dangerous enemy in a systematic Catholic 
opposition. 

American Board’s New Missions in Central Afri¬ 
ca, JO. 120. — Its pioneers are already (May, 1880) en route^ 
;n order to explore the land south of the Zambesi and north 
of St. George’s River for the establishment of mission sta¬ 
tions in Umzila’s kingdom, thereby to extend the Natal-Zulu 
Mission of the American Board toward the north. See the 
oamphlet just published by the American Board: Urazila’s 
i^ingdom a Field for Christian Missions, Boston, 1880. 
riiis Board is also opening a mission to the interior through 
Jenguela to Bihe. The exploring company is already on 
he way to Benguela. 

Syrian Missions, p. 142. — The Quakers have two sta- 
ions ill Syria, with seven flourishing schools, an orphan- 
louse, and hospital. See Illustrated Missionary News, Feb- 
uary, 1880, p. 15; and Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, 
\.pril, 1880, p. 180. 

Cashmere, p. 147. — Recently some missionaries from 


244 


ADDENDA. 


the Church Missionary Society have been endeavoring tc 
press forward from Candahar and Dera Ghazi Khan to tht 
Beludschi tribes. See the report upon the first year oi 
the Beludschi Mission, in the Church Missionary Intelli¬ 
gencer, April, 1880, p 222, sqq. 

India, Tinnevelly, p. 156. — On the 20th of January. 
1880, the centennial jubilee of the founding of the mission 
in Tinnevelly by the German missionaries ^Mr. Schw^artz) 
M^as celebrated in Palamcotta; and the statistics of both the 
English Episcopal Missionary Societies in this district, 
showing their condition on the 30th of June, 1879, were 
given as follows : The Church Missionary Society had in 
eight hundred and seventy-five villages, besides the Euro¬ 
pean missionaries, fifty-eight native ministers, thirty-four 
thousand four hundred and eighty-four baptized converts, 
and nineteen thousand and fifty-two receiving instruction 
previous to baptism: the Propagation Society had, in six 
hundred and thirty-one villages, thirty-one ordained native 
ministers, twenty-four thousand seven hundred and nine¬ 
teen baptized converts, and nineteen thousand three hun¬ 
dred and fifty receiving instruction previous to baptism: 
making a total of ninety-seven thousand six hundred and 
five under the care of the English churches, of whom thir¬ 
teen thousand two hundred and sixty-five were communi¬ 
cants. See Church Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1880, 
pp. 301, sqq. 

lloiiiLCUND, p. 163. —The American Methodist Episcopal 
Church have in Bohilcund District, in nine stations, eleven 
hundred and thirty-two; in the Oudh District, in seven sta¬ 
tions, two hundred and forty-five adult members; in the 
former, in eighty-five day schools, tw^enty-nine hundred and 
eighty-eight scholars; in the latter, in seventy-five day 
schools, twenty-seven hundred and ninety-six scholars; in 
the Kumoon District, in four stations, ninety-one full mem¬ 
bers and thirteen hundred and fourteen scholars, in thirty- 
five day schools. See Annual Beport (January, 1880), p. 


ADDENDA. 


245 


138; and, for further particulars, in the thorough work of 
Dr. Reid, ^Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1879, 
7ol. ii., pp. 100-243. 

Bombay, p. 165.—The mission of the Scotch State 
Church in Bombay is especially of importance on account 
if its schools. The mission work of the Irish Presbyterian 
Church in the Gujarat and Kattyawer Districts is more ex¬ 
pended, especially among the aborigines. In six principal 
jtations, Ahmedabad, Borsad, Surat, &c., which are divided 
s\ ods, there are nine European missionaries at 
York. The number of those baptized, about one thousand, 
las recently begun to increase very rapidly. 

I Siam, p. 189.—In Siam the American Presbyterians have 
|.wo small congregations in Bangkok, and in Petchaburi 
imd Bangkaboon one each, with one hundred and thirty- 
jhree adult church-members in both places; a number of 
jlourishing day and boarding schools, with three hundred 
cholars; also industrial schools for women, conducted by 
American female teachers; and a mission press. The 
j^^eat extent to which the influence of evangelical missions 
3 already beginning to tell in this land, so similar to Bur- 
Qah with its beautiful pagodas, wherein until now one 
lundred million marks were annually appropriated for 
he support of the Buddhist priests and cloisters, may be 
een by the recent royal decree, which ordered a decided 
eduction of the number of lazy priests, and forced many of 
hem to exchange their idle cloister life for one of honest 
;ork. Still further, the present king, a short time ago, 
Dok the bold step of appointing the American missionary, 
!)r. McFarland, superintendent of public instruction, and 
rincipal of the State high schools, in which influential 
osition he can now make the whole instruction of the 
outh of Siam more in accordance with the principles of 
le gospel. 

t Five hundred (English) miles to the north of Bangkok, 
fiese Americans since 1867 have had a mission in Chieng- 





246 


ADDENDA. 


mai among the Laos, with a missionary physician. In Sej 
teniber, 1869, two of the newly won Christians, on accoiii 
of the caprice of the despotic ruler, died courageously th 
martyr’s death, praying for their brethren in such a rnanm 
that it moved the executioner to tears. J^ow there is 
congregation of thirty-one communicants in that city, an 
besides this there are two out-stations. Recently also th 
conversion of a state officer of high rank caused some pei 
secutions. But an appeal on the part of the missionaries t 
the chief king in Bangkok resulted in his commandin 
the Laos authorities in a public proclamation to exercis 
religious toleration, and even protect the observance of th 
sabbath. See Foreign Missionary (of the same church^ 
March, 1879. Calwer Mission-Bl., 1878, p. 30, sqq.; Ulus 
trated IMissionary News, 1880, p. 75. 

China, Fuh-kien, p. 196.—IIow very promising wer 
the accounts, given at the last anniversary of the Churcl 
Missionary Society (May, 1880), of the work in thi 
piovince, the doors of wdiich have recently been throwi 
open. After eleven j'^ears of work in the great city Fu-chau 
they had there in 1861 three or four converts : in 1879 
theie were three thousand native Christians. A missionary 
related at this same anniversary that the gospel was firs' 
preached by him, in another small town fourteen years be 
fore, and that now there are from three to four thousanc 
Christians connected with the Anglican and Methodist mis 
sions there. The Christians have provided their owi 
churches, chapels, and nativ’^e helpers, without any helj. 
whatever from the Church Missionary Society. In Lc 
Nguong, twelve years ago there were only a few Catholics 
now there are fourteen evangelical churches and chapels ii: 
this distiict. In Ring 4 aip and its suburbs, there art 
seventeen churches, and from six to seven hundred baptized 
converts. A man from another district of the province 
asked repeatedly for a catechist (1879). It was impossible 
at the time to send one thither, and the man in despair 


ADDENDA. 


247 


took his life! So great is the hunger for the word in that 
place. The Church ISIissionary Society alone has in this 
province over one hundred churches and chapels, one hun¬ 
dred stations, one hundred and twenty native catechists and 
teachers, and in 1879 an increase of four hundred Christians. 
The Methodist Episcopal Mission in Fu-chau District has 
forty-seven churches, with thirteen hundred and eighty-four 
adult members. See the unusually interesting report of 
missionary Wolfe, at the meeting of the Church Missionary 
Society in Exeter Hall; in the Christian World, May 11, 
1880, p. 3, sqq. Also the annual report of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, January, 1880, p. 69. 

Female Missionaries in China, p. 201. — It is very 
desirable to notice this, as different persons (non-English), 
acquainted with China, have assured me that the inde¬ 
pendence and freedom with which some of the unmarried 
English and American female missionary helpers enter the 
houses, often in Chinese clothes, must cause great offence 
to the Chines?, with their ideas of propriety, and must 
awaken distrust. May they combine with their praise¬ 
worthy zeal and simplicity, necessary wisdom and care, in 
order not to increase the antipathy of the Chinese against 
every thing foreign I 

Famine-stricken Districts in China, p. 209. — Al¬ 
though Chinese pride in many parts of the land took pains 
to make it appear that these contributions came from the 
Chinese Government, that government through its ambas¬ 
sadors in England publicly expressed ifs thanks to the gen¬ 
erous donors. Thus the Chinese Mission from this side also 
appears more hopeful. The preparatory work in “stone¬ 
breaking,” of which we have been accustomed to speak 
until now, may become little by little in certain provinces, 
under God’s blessing and protection, an extensive w'^ork in 
building. Elsewhere, especially in the southern coast lands, 
the old hatred of foreigners, encouraged by the Mandarins, 
continues for the most part. Although generally hidden 


248 


ADDENDA. 


under the mask of outward politeness, it often breaks forth 
in partial persecutions, as it did a short time ago in a Basel 
station. Certainly it is less because of interest in Eastern 
reforms, than to obtain better means for the expulsion of 
all foreigners, that China is seeking to utilize for her army 
and navy European improvements in the science of war. 
On this account some missionaries consider a coming storm 
almost inevitable, which shall bring for a time an important 
crisis to the whole Christian mission in the Celestial Empire. 
It may be that the Lord, in the last decade especially 
through unexampled famines, must break dowm still more 
the unbounded Chinese conceit, by terrible judgments, ex¬ 
ternal war, or internal rebellion and plagues, in order to 
make the masses of the people more accessible to the gospel, 
and to change the obstinate self-complacency into hunger 
for God s help. It may be that he will so overrule all, 
that also in the “ Celestial Empire,” the way shall be 
opened more fully for the kingdom of heaven. 

Japan, p. 216.—Also upon the island of Schikoku (on 
the southern extremity of Nipon) in 1879 an unusually 
hopeful beginning was made by the missionaries of the 
American Board. In the city of Imabari and other places, 
they found a welcome reception. Already in these, and in 
outlying villages, numerous new congregations have been 
started. See Annual Report of the American Board, 1879, 
p. 75, sqq. 

The Battle of the Church, p. 217. — Here in Japan 
so much the more is this battle to be fought, and so much 
earlier, since the majority of the converts up to the present 
time--an unusual circumstance — are almost entirely from 
the middle educated classes, who have little svmpathy with 
the lower classes. The mass of the people are curious, but 
still waiting: the higher classes hold themselves indifferent. 
As they have little regard for their own religion, so but few 
of them have thus far shown interest in the life-giving 
power of Christianity; either of the “Buddhistic,” as they 


ADDENDA. 


249 


call that of the Catholic Church in Tokio (on account of 
the candles, flowers, pictures, rosaries, &c.), or of the 
“ Shinto-Christianity,” that is, the Christianity of the 
Evangelical Church (because in it there are no pictures, and 
the sermon is the chief part of the service, as in the Shinto 
temple). 

Enterprise and Reform now quietly going on 
THEIR Way, p. 217. — The country is already divided by 
government into seven large school districts, and provided 
with twenty-four thousand public elementary schools. A 
complete change of their idea of the world will be wroudit 
in the entire rising generation in the near future. Thou¬ 
sands of new books of every description appear annually; 
hundreds of newspapers furnish the Athenian curiosity of 
the people with food. The grove of Confucius, in old 
Yedo, once so animated, is now desolate. The immense 
park with its primitive trees lies forsaken ; and with melan¬ 
choly the statue of the deified master looks in loneliness 
upon the empty walks and halls, while young Japan streams 
into the new University. Ev. Missionary Magazine, June, 
1880, pp. 225-228. 


INDEX 


Abeih, 143. 

Abeokuta, 106. 

Abyssinia, 9,120. 

Academy, French, at Paris, 127. 
Accra, 105. 

Adangme, 105. 

Afghans, 147. 

Afghanistan, 164. 

Africa, 1, 8,10, 12, 77,101, 241. 

East, 8, 117. 

interior lakes of, 9,102. 

East Central, 114. 

South, 8,110. 
converts in, 16. 

demoralizing influences of white 
settlers in, 25. 

Central, power of Islam in, 26. 
expedition of American Board to, 
1 - 20 . 

"West, converts in, 16. 

Agra, 10. 

Medical Educational Institute in, 75. 
Aintab,141,150. 

Aii-la-Chapelle, 44. 

Akem, 105. 

Akuapem, 105. 

Alaska, 91. 

Alden, Dr., 28. 

Alexandria, 138. 

Allahabad, 163, 179. 

Allison, Mr., 2^. 

Alliance, Evangelical, in New York, 
22, 51. 

in Basel, 37, 227. 

resolutions against Indo - opium 
trade,208. 

Amazon, 10,101. 

Ambovna, waiting for missionaries, 
84. 

America, North, objections to mis¬ 
sion-methods from, 64. 

Indians in, 6, 9, 10, 23. 
aid of women in, 76. 

Moravian Church in, 34. 

United States of, 13. 
missionaries from, 6. 

250 


America, United States of, number of 
missionary societies in, 14. 
daughter societies of, 14. 
amount of money contributed to 
missions in, 18. 

missionaries from, in China, 20. 
gifts of private individuals in, 36. 
subscribers to missionary jour¬ 
nals in, 55. 

missionary periodicals of, 15. 

British North, Romanists seek to 
paralyze Ifrotestant missions in, 
27. 

Central, net of evangelical missions 
in, 9, 97. 

American (U. S. A.) professors and 
doctors of medicine teaching in 
Turkey, 74. 

idea of educating native Christians, 

86 . 

Americans, number of, employed in 
missions, 15. 
in medical missions, 73. 

medical missions conducted by, 8. 

Amoy, 196, 197. 

Amritsir, 10. 

Andover, students of, 12. 

Anderson, Dr., of Boston, on contri¬ 
butions in United States of 
America, 36. 

Angola, 107. 

Angus, Dr., 51. 

Antananarivo, 116. 

Antigua, 99. 

Antioch, 142. 

Arabic, the Bible in, 148. 

Archipelago, Caroline, 14. 

Indian, occupied by missionaries, 

i m 

converts in, 16. 

Seychelle, 117. 

Arkansas, 

Armenia, 151. 

Armenians, 139. 

Armenian, Bible in, 148. 

Arthur, Rev. W., 209. 






INDEX 


251 


Aru Islands, waiting for missionaries, 
84. 

Aryan languages, 167. 

Ashantee, 105. 

Asia, mission dispensaries and hospi¬ 
tals in, 74. 

Asia Minor, 140. 

Asiatic kingdoms, penetration of 
Christianity into, 5. 

Eastern nations, winning the edu¬ 
cated classes in, 65. 

Association, Congregational, of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, 12. 

Athens, 67. 

Auka, 97. 

Australia, 1, 7. 
aboriginals reached in, 8. 
demoralizing efiects of white set¬ 
tlers in, 25. 

Australasia, 85. 

Babylonia, 139. 

Baden, 44. 

Bagdad, 8. 

Bahamas, 99. 

Balkans, 8, 139. 

Bangkok, 189. 

Banks Island, 88. 

Barton, Mr., 185. 

Barth, Dr., champion of missions in 
South Giermany, 23. 

Basel, 8. 

Basuto, 8. 

Basutos, 110. 

Battas, Rhenish mission among, 19,84. 
Baur, W., 88. 

Bavaria, 44. 

Bechuana, 8,109. 

Bedouins, 145. 

Beirut, coliege and schools in, 74,142. 
Bengel, 63. 

Benares, 10,163, 187. 

Bengal, 161. 

Benguela, 107. 

Berbice, 97. 

Bethlehem, 8. 

Bethesda Foundling House, Hong¬ 
kong, 195. 

Bible, societies in heathen lands, 15. 
Society, British and Foreign, trans¬ 
lations of, 19, 148. 
into Chinese, 197, 203. 

Berlin branch of, 19. 

British and American societies, 148. 
readers of the London Society, 22. 
no l.anguage too difficult to be trans¬ 
lated into the Bible, 23. 
Birmingham, missionary physicians 
in, 73. 

Blantyre, 178, 243. 

Blencowe, Rev. Mr., 112. 

Bliss, Rev. Dr., 140. 


Blythswood, 113. 

Boers, Dutch, 110. 

Bombay, 75, 145, 245. 

famine in, 155. 

Bonn, 76. 

Borneo, 7. 

Southern, 84. 

Borresen, 162. 

Bothnia, Gulf of, 107. 

Bourbon Island, 21. 

Braunfels, 44. 

Brabmo Somaj,, 68, 188. 

Brahmin caste, 68. 

Brazil, 10, 101. 

Bremen, 44. 

Bristol, missionary physicians in, 73. 
Brown, Mr., 124. 

Brunat, 92. 

statistics of, 93. 

Brusa, 139, 150. 

Buchner, Mr., 185. 

Buddhist temples ruined, 215. 
Bulgaria, 139. 

Bible in the language of, 148. 
Burns, William, Christian example in 
China, 72. 

Burmah, 152, 160. 
open to the gospel, 7. 
rapid progress in, 20. 

Judson, pioneer missionary to, 12. 
Burmese, 160. 

Bushmen converted, 23. 

Bushland, 97. 

Buss, Von, unfruitfulness of our mia- 
sion-methods, 67. 

Caesarea, 141, 148. 

Cairo, 138, 139. 

Calabar, Old, 103. 

Calcutta, 147, 181, 225. 

Caldwell, Bishop, 156. 

California, 64. 

Cambridge, 49. 

Cameroons, 103. 

Canada, 9, 89. 

Canton, 7, 195. 

Canton de Vaud, 14. 

Cape Colony, 14, 21, 108. 

self-support in, 25. 

Carey, Dr., 11. 

Carlyle, Rev. J. E., 16. 

Caroline Islands, 86. 

Cashmere, 147, 243. 

Caucasian, 122. 

Celebes, 83. 

Celestial Empire (see China), 24,189. 
Ceylon, 6, 151, 159. 

Che-foo, 199. 

convention, rights given to foreign, 
ers, 201. 

Cheh-kiang, 197. 

Cherokees, 93. 





252 


INDEX 


Chickasaws, number of church-mem- 
bera among, 93. 

Cbiengraar, 189. 

Chi-li, 199. 

China, 10, 136, 189, 246, 248. 
traversed by missionaries, 7. 
converts in, 16. 

number of missionaries in, 20. 
entirely open to missionaries, 20. 
comparatively few converts in, 24. 
rapidly being conquered, 67. 
won through medical missionaries, 
72. 

mission dispensaries and hospitals, 
number of, 74. 
girls’ schools in, 77. 
statistics, 1877, of, 192. 
missionaries’ conference in, 204. 
Presbyterian union formed in, 204. 
North-east, famine in, 205, 248. 

Chiu-kiang, 198. 

Choctaws, number of church-mem¬ 
bers, 93. 

Chota Nagpore, 162. 

Chrischona Brethren, 120. 

Christians as Samaritans, 207. 

Church, Baptist, largest in United 
States, 38. 

work among freedmen, 96. 
Congregational, United States, con¬ 
tributions from, 36, 37. 
Continental, in Europe, 34. 

English State, amount of conti’ibu- 
tions, 33. 

meeting of ministers of, in Lady 
Huntingdon’s chapel, 27. 
Episcopal, Prote8tant,United States, 
number of congregations, and 
amount of contribution, 38. 
Episcopal Methodist, North, United 
States, 37. 

work among the freedmen, 38, 
96. 

Free, subject of missions under¬ 
stood in, 52. 

theological faculties united in, 58. 
Free, of Scotland, 32. 
contribution of, 33. 
requirements for membership, 35. 
Free, of Canton de Vaud, 41. 
German Lutheran, 40. 

interest of, in missions, 42. 
German State, contributions in, 34. 
members of, not trained to give. 
43. 

Indian National, founding of, 185. 
Lutheran, in United States, contri¬ 
butions of, 38. 

Madagascar National, 114. 

Congregational character of, 116. 
Moravian, number of members, 34. 
National, composed of, 35. 


Church, national, far outdone by inde¬ 
pendent churches, 32. 
Nestorian, in Persia, 145. 

New Protestant Oriental, in Tur¬ 
key, 139. 0 

Presbyterian, North and South, 
United States, 37. 

Reformed Dutch, United States, 
active in missions, 38. 

Scotch, Established, 32. 

contributions of, 33. 

United Presbyterian of Scotland, 
32, 33, 

interest in missions, 55. 

Clark, Rev. Dr., 217. 

Columbia, 90, 

Comorin, Cape, 7. 

Congo, 8, 57. 

Congo-Livingstone, 107. 
Constantinople, 141. 
Congregationalists, 36. 

Copts, missions among, 139. 

Corea, 212. 

Corisco, 103, 241. 

Creeks, number of church-members, 
93. 

Crimean war, 137. 

Crowther, Bishop, 106. 

Cuddapah, 152. 

Dahomey, 106. 

Dakotas, missions among, 94. 
Damietta, 138. 

Danes, 6. 

Darwin, 84. 

sympathy for missions, 76. 

Delhi, 10,163. 

Delagoa Bay, 8. 

Demerara, mission stations in, 98. 
Denmark, number of societies in, 14. 
Depok, seminary for evangelists in, 
83. 

Dissenters, 27. 

Dravidian languages, 167. 

Duff, Dr., 12. 

Dufferin, Lord, astonishment of, at 
results in Columbia, 91. 

Duke of York Island, 124. 

Duncan,William, a missionary genius, 
90. 

Dutch material success, 40. 

Ebenezer station, 81. 

Egypt, 8, 138. 

Elberfeld-Barmen, 44. 

Eliot, Sir Henry, 138. 

Eliice, 85. 

England, missionaries from, 6,12. 
number of missionary societies in, 

daughter societies of, 14. 

Hong Kong surrendered to, 20. 




INDEX 


253 


England, necessity for retrenchment 
among the societies of, 29. 
amount of money contributed to 
missions by, 18. 

money spent for intoxicating"drinks 
in, 51. 

missionary duty of, 32. 
lack of workers in, 62. 
objections to missions from, 64. 
aid of women from, 76. 

English colonists, work of Propaga¬ 
tion Society among, 13. 
Englishmen, travellers, opinion of na¬ 
tive Australians, 22. 

English Missionary Encyclopaedia, 

England, New, Unitarians in, 36. 
Eppler, Mr., 22. 

Erskine, Dr. John, pleads for mis¬ 
sionaries, 11. 

Erzeroom, 141. 

Eski-Sagra, 139. 

Esquimaux converted in America, 23. 

scattered remnants of, 89. 

Es Salt, 144. 

Europe, barbarous tribes Christian¬ 
ized, 5. 

number of missionaries from, in 
China, 20. 

Moravians in, 34. 

Continent of, almost no medical 
missionaries in, 75. 

Europeans, number employed in mis¬ 
sionary societies, 15. 
evil influence of, 92. 

Exeter Hall, 12. 

Faber, Dr., 204. 

Fairfield, Theological Seminary at, 98. 
Falkland Islands, 9, 101. 

Ferris, Rev. Dr., 210. 

Fiji Islands, 87. 

Finland, number of societies in, 14. 
Finns, 107. 

Formosa, 197. 

won through medical missionaries, 
72. 

missionary dispensaries and hospi¬ 
tals in, 74. 

Forrest, Mr., 207. 

Fosterland Institute, 166. 

Fourah Bay College, 104. 

France, 203. 

concentrated missionary activity of, 
14, 39. 

Freedraen in the United States, 9. 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 172. 

Frere Town, ll7. 

Friesland, East, 12. 

Fu-chau, 196. 

Fuh-Kien, 196, 246. 

Furruckabad, 164. 


Gaboon, 8,103. 

Ga language, 105. 

Gallaland, 120. 

Gambia, 103. 

Ganges, 162. 

Gan-hwuy, 200. 

Gardiner, Allen, 101. 

Gaza, 144. 

Gerland, 84. 

Germany, number of societies in, 14, 
39. 

amount of money contributed, 18. 
deficits in societies, 28. 
interest in missions, 43. 
why no colonies? 45. 
subscribers to missionary journals, 
55. 

position of, in missionary matters, 
48. 

special theological seminaries in, 58. 
theological tendencies of, 59. 
missionary physicians needed, 76. 
German professor of theology on 
founding a mission society, 11. 
Germans, three-fold conversion of, 
needed, 42. 

Ghonds, 165. 

Gilbert Islands, 86. 

Gippsland, Moravian missions in, 22. 
Gladbach,44. 

Glasgow, missionary physicians in, 
73. 

Gobat, Bishop, 145. 

Goeking, Dr., 75. 

Gold Coast, 61,104. 

missions on, 61. 

Gordon, Sir A., on Fijians, 87. 
Gottingen, 44. 

Grant, President, 92. 

Graul, Dr., 70. 

Greenland, 89. 

Norwegians, Danes, Moravians, at 
work in, 6. 

Greece, Christians in, 67. 

Greeks, 139. 

Great Britain, 32, 33. 
number of missionary societies in, 
14. 

Grundemann, 84. 

Guinness, Mr. Grattan, 57. 

Guiana, British, 9. 

Dutch, 9, 97, 2i0. 

Hakkas, 195. 

Hakodate, 213. 

Halle, 47. 

Hamadan, 146. 

Hamasen, 119. 

Hamburg, 44. 

Hanover, 43. 

Hankau, 200. 

Hang-Chau, 197. 





254 


INDEX 


Hardeland, 223. 

Harport, 140, 150. 

Hawaiian Islands, Evangelical Asso¬ 
ciation in, 14, 85. 
self-support in, 25. 

Hayti district, 99. 

Hebrides, New, 87 

Hegel, quoted in India, 26,181. 

Hereroland, 107. 

High-Churchism, its resuits in Mada¬ 
gascar, 116. 

Himalayas, 7, 166. 

Hindooism, a tower of darkness, 26, 
151. 

Hindoo women, need of medical mis¬ 
sions among, 74. 

Holland, 38. 

number of societies in, 14, 39. 
opposition to old methods from, 65. 
Hongkong, 7,194. 
converts in, 20. 
missionary meeting in, 20. 
foundling-house in, 78. 

Honduras, 9, 99. 

Hottentots, 21. 

Hovas, 113. 

Hudson’s Bay Territory, 9, 89. 
Hughes, Mr., 123. 

Huntingdon, Lady, missionary meet¬ 
ing in chapei of, 27. 

Hu-peh, 200. 

India, 136,151, 244. 
number of converts in, 16. 

Kohls in, 20. 

Nihilism in, 26. 
being rapidly conquered, 67. 
Christian training in, 67. 
to be won through medical mis¬ 
sions, 72. 

mission dispensaries and hospitals 
in, 74. 

girls’ schools in, 77. 
native Christians Europeanized, 
132. 

number of missionary societies in, 
151. 

missionary presses in, 180. 
Northern, converts in, 146. 

Farther, converts in, 16. 

Southern, rapid progress of mis¬ 
sions in, 20. 
self-support in, 25. 
famine in, 155. 

founding National Church in, 185. 
India, British, East, Halle-Danish 
mission in, 6. 
open to the gospel, 7. 
converts in, 16. 
statistics of, 152. 

Indies, West, 98,103. 

Wesleyan missions in, 6. 


Indies, Moravian missions in, 0. 
converts in, 16. 
self-support in, 25. 
present condition of missions in, 97. 
British, number of communicants 
in, 100. 

Danish, 98. 

Indies, East, 14. 

number of native missionaries in, 
15. 

Indian Female Normal School, work 
of, 11, 77. 

Indian Female Evangelist, see Liter¬ 
ature. 

Indians of North America, 6. 
missions among, 9. 
demoralizing influences of white 
settlers upon, 90. 
statistics about, 93, 95. 

Indian Agency, 92. 

Indian Territory, 96. 

Inglis, Mr., 87. 

Institute, St. Chrishona, 56. 

Irrawadi, 161. 

Islam, 6. 

lands of, called to the gospel, 8. 
bulwark of, not yet undermined, 
26. 

lands shut against the gospel by, 26. 
to be won through medical mis¬ 
sions, 72. 
yoke of, 102. 

Ispahan, 146. 

Jaffa, 144. 

Jamaica, 98. 

a Protestant land, 100. 

Japan, 10, 206, 210, 248. 
hungry for reform, 7. 
materialistic professors in, 26. 
rapidly being conquered, 67. 
missionary dispensaries and hospi. 
tals in, 74. 

first Protestant church in, 211. 
universities of, 216, 249. 

Java, 7, 83. 

Jenkins, Rev. Mr., 147. 

Jerusalem, 137, 144. 

Jessup, Dr., 139. 

Jesuits in India, 68. 

Jews, Reformed, enemies of missions, 
46. 

Johnston, Rev. J., 174. 

Jordan,144. 

Judson, Adoniram, plea for missions. 

Jubilee Singers in Europe, 96. 

Kafraria, British, 109. 

periodical published in, 112. 

Kafirs, 110. 

Kaiserswerth, deaconesses of, 78,145. 




INDEX 


255 


Kalgan, 199. 

Kalkar, Dr., 226. 

Karens, 157, 160. 

Kei River, 113. 

Kemp, Dr. Van der, fighting for 
rights of natives, 21. 

Keshub Chunder Sen, 186. 
acknowledges that the spirit of 
Christianity pervades Indian 
society, 188. 

Ki, waiting for missionaries, 84. 
Kiang-Su, 198. 

Kiang-Si, 200. 

Kioto, 212. 

Knox, John, 127. 

Kobe, 213. 

Kohls, in India, 154, 157. 

Kola, 167. 

Koran, 138. 

commands of, against the Bible, 
148. 

Ko-Tha-Byu, 161. 

Krishnagur, Christians of, 171. 

Kurds, 149. 

Kurdish language, 148. 

Kururaan, 109. 

Kwang-tung, 195. 


Labrador, Norwegians, Danes, and 
Moravians at work in, 6. 
Lahore, 10, 164. 

Lakes, African, 9. 

Laos, 189. 

Laps, Norwegian and Swedish mis¬ 
sionaries among, 6. 
Laplanders, 107. 

Lawes, Mr., 83. 

Lawrence, Lord, 177. 

Lebanon, Mount, 8. 

schools in, 141. 

Legge, Prof. Dr., 192,194. 

Leiden, 65. 

Leupolt, Mr., 167, 168. 

on access to Indian homes, 10. 
Liberia, 104. 

Livingstone, Mr., 118,123, 222. 
monument to, 12. 
demands more talented men, 70. 
Livingstonia, 118. 

Liverpool. See Missionary Confer¬ 
ence. 

medical missionaries in, 73. 
Lodiana, 164. 

London. See Missionary Confer¬ 
ence. 

missionary physicians in, 73. 
Lovedale Institute, 112. 

Lowe, Rev. Dr., 20. 

Loyalty Group, 87. 

Lucknow, 10. 

Lytton, Lord, 174. 


Macaulay, Lord, on Christian unity, 
31. 

Macleod, Sir Donald, 177. 
Madagascar, 8, 114, 242. 

Native Missionary Society of, 14. 
converts in, 16. 
schools in, 18. 
self-support in, 25. 

Romanists in, 116. 

Madras, 147, 225. 
missionary physicians in, 73. 
famine in Presidency of, 155. 
Mahratta, South, 154, 165. 

Basel mission in, 159. 

Malaya, 167. 

Malayo - Polynesian races almost 
Christianized, 85. 

Malacca, 189. 

Manchuria, 7,194, 201, 202. 
Manchester, 73. 

Mandelay, 161. 

Mangalore, 177. 

Manisa, 150. 

Maoris, 82. 

Marash, 141, 150. 

Mardin, 150. 

Margary, 201. 

Marshall Islands, 86. ■■ 

Marshman, Life and Times of Carey, 

11 . 

Marsinau, 139. 

Marsovan, 150. 

Marquesas, 86. 

Martyn, Henry, 71. 

Massachusetts, Congregational Asso* 
ciation of, 12. 

Masulipatam, 176. 

Masurah, 119. 

Mauritius Island, 117. 

Mayer, 120. 

McCarthy, Mr. T., 201. 

McKerrow, History of Missions, 55. 
McLeod, Dr. Norman, 189. 
Mecklenburg, 43. 

Medical missionaries, 20, 76, 239. 
Medical prayer union, 73. 
Mediterranean, civilized nations 
about, 5. 

Meinicke, 84. 

Melanesia, 86. 

missions in, extended every year, 7. 
number of converts in, 88. 

Menelek, King, 120. 

Merensky, 223. 

Methodism, little favor of, in Ger¬ 
many, 43. 

Methodists, Wesleyan, Canadian Con¬ 
ference of, 89. 

Metlakahtla, 90. 

Micronesia, 86. 

mission-field in, extended every 
year, 7. 



256 


INDEX 


Micronesia, number of converts in, 

88 . 

Mikado, 217. 

Mildmay Missionary Conference, 1. 

Mildraay Conference, 70. 

Milne, 203. 

Missionary Conferences in Allaha¬ 
bad, 2, 225. 
in Bremen, 225. 
in Liverpool (1860), 1, 225. 
in London, 1, 225. 
in New York, 226. 
in Shanghai, 2. 
note, 191, 225. 

Missionary Societies. 

American Board (Boston), 12, 14, 
103, 133, 221. 
great progress, 17. 
happy position financially, 29. 
number of missionaries em¬ 
ployed, 57. r 
open-hearted freedom of, 59. 
missions of, in Polynesia, 85. 
in the Sandwich Islands, 85. 
in Micronesia, 86. 
among the Indians of North 
America, 92, 93, 94. 
in Natal and Zululand, 113, 243. 
mission sent out by, to Central 
Africa, 120, 243. 
in Turkey, 137. 

among the Armenians and 
Greeks, 140. 
in Persia, 145. 
in India, 1-58. 
in Ceylon, 158, 160,164. 
in Mahratta, 165. 
in China, 191, 196, 200. 
in Japan, 210, 212. 
weekly newspaper published and 
circulated by, in Japan, 214. 
American Missionary Association 
among the Indians, 92. 
schools erected by, for the freed- 
men, 96. 
in Liberia, 104. 
in China, 192. 

Baptist Missionary Union (Boston), 
57, 60, 61, 189, 221. 
in India, 153, 156, 158. 
in Burmah, 160, 161, 163. 
in China, 195, 213. 

Baptist ('U. S., North), among the 
Indians, 92. 

Baptist (U. S., South), among the 
Indians, 92, 93. 
in Yorubaland, 106. 
in China, 198. 

Baptist, English, 13, 34. 
on the Cameroons, 103. 
in India, 153. 
in Ceylon, 160. 


Missionary Societies. 

Baptist, in Ganges plain, 138. 
in Japan, 214. 

Baptist, Free, in China, 192. 

Baptist, General, in India, 166. 

London Baptist, 31. 

Barmen, 41, 61,’75. 
no funds to send medical mission¬ 
ary to China, 75. 
on Gold Coast, 105. 
on Slave Coast, 105. 
in China, 192. 
stations of, 195. 

Basel, 177. 
statistics, 41. 
regulations of, 59. 
on Gold Coast, 61,104, 105. 
on Slave Coast, 104, 105. 
in South Mahratta, 154. 

India, 153, 154. 

Southern India, 155, 159. 

China, 192, 195. 

Berlin-China, 192. 
united to the Barmen, 46. 

Berlin Ladies’ Society for China, 
78* 


on Hongkong, 195. 

Berlin, 40, 110. 

Berlin, South African, 61,109, 241. 

Brecklumer Mission Amstalt, 57. 

Bremen, 104. 
statistics, 41. 
station of, 82. 

British and Foreign Bible Society, 
19, 120,148, 203. 

Canadian Wesleyan Methodist, 89. 

Canadian Presbyterian, 87. 
in China, 196. 

China, Inland, 34, 56. 
in China, 191, 192, 198. 

Chrischona, 145. 

Christliche, Gereformeerde Kerk, 
note, 39. 

Church Missionary Society, 13,14, 
17,100, 116, 221. 
contributions of, 33. 
statistics, 41, 42. 
open-hearted freedom of, 59. 
work among the Maoris, 82. 
in Rupertsland Red River, &c« 
89. 


note, 90. 
in Columbia, 91. 

Sierra Leone, 103. 
in Yorubalands, 106. 
on the Niger, 106. 
in East Africa, 117. 
at Victoria Nyanza, 119. 
at Cairo, 138. 
in the Lebanon, 141. 
in Palestine, 144,145. 
in Persia, 146, 147. 




INDEX 


257 


Missionary Societies. 

Church Missionary Society in India, 
153,158,165,171,180,183. 
in the Tinnevelly district, 156,158, 
177, 244. 
in Ceylon, 159. 
in the Ganges plain, 162,163. 
in China, 191, 195, 196, 200, 246. 
in Japan, 213, 243. 

Congo, 57. 

Danish, in Greenland, 89. 

in India, 153, 159, 162. 

Dutch, 6, 8, 68, 83. 

in Ceylon, 159.' 

Dutch of Rotterdam, 14. 

East London Institute for Home 
and Foreign Missions, 56, 107. 
Dutch Reformed, 109, 159, 192, 196. 

in Japan, 210, 212. 

Edinburgh Medical, 73. 

English, 7, 8, 9, 210. 

English Episcopal, 41. 
in Banks, Santa Cruz, and Solo¬ 
mon Islands, 88. 
in Antigua and Jamaica, 99. 
English Church, 17, 156, 162. 
schools of, 18. 
in Melanesia, 86. 
on the Island of Mauritius, 117. 
in China, 198. 

Episcopal, Protestant (U. S.),92,94, 
99, 200. 

in Japan, 210, 213. 

Ermelo’s Zendinggenootschap, note, 
39. 

Evangelical Society (America), 57, 
166. 

in Japan, 210. 

Finnish, Lutheran, among the Ova- 
hereros, 107. 

Fosterlands Stiftelsen, 14. 

French, 8. 

Free Baptist, in China, 192. 

Free Church, of the Canton de 
Vaud, 41, 57. 

Freedmen’s Missionary Aid So¬ 
ciety (London), 96. 

German, 8, 17, 41, 61, 72, 135. 
Gossner, 40. 

in India, 20,153,154, 161, 162. 
Halle-Danish, 6, 13. 

• in India, 68. 

Hanoverian, 57. 

Hawaiian Evangelical Association, 
14, 85, 86. 

Herraannsburg, 40. 
in New Zealand, 82. 
among the Bechuanas, 110. 
stations destroyed by war. 111. 
in India, 153, 159. 

Indian Female Normal School, 
among the Zenanas, 11. 


Missionary Societies. 

number of workers in, 77. 

Java Comite (Amsterdam), 39. 

Jerusalem Association (of Berlin), 
145. 

Kaiserswerth, 78. 
deaconesses of, in Jerusalem, &c., 
145. 

Lady Huntingdon Connection, 104. 

Ladies’ Association for the Social 
and Religious Elevation of Sy¬ 
rian Women, 77. 

Ladies’ Society for the Education 
of Women in India and South 
Africa, 77. 

Ladies’ Society for the Training of 
Females in the East, 77. 

Leipzig, 40. 
in India, 153. 

number of converts, 156, 158. 

London Society, 11,13, 14, 34. 
progress, 17. 
schoois of, 18. 
workers of, 22. 
founded, 27. 
in New Guinea, 83. 
in Polynesia, 85. 
in Micronesia, 86. 
in Milanesia, 86. 
in the Loyalty Group, 87. 
in the West Indies, 99. 
in British Kafraria, 109. 
among the Hovas, 114, 115. 
in Madagascar, 114. 
at Lake Tanganyika, 118. 
in India, 153, 154, 158. 
in Ganges plain, 163. 
in China, 191, 195, 196, 200. 

London Jewish, 120. 
in Palestine, 145. 

Lutheran Synod of the United 
States, 41. 

Lutheran American, in India, 153. 
in China, 192. 

Methodist Episcopal (U. S.), 37,244. 
number of missionaries, 68. 
among the Yakamas, 94. 
in Liberia, 104. 
in India, 159, 163, 165, 244. 
in China, 192,196, 200. 
in Japan, 210, 213. 

Primitive Methodist, 34, 241, 242. 

United Methodist Free Church, 34, 
104, 118. 

Methodist New Connection, in 
China, 199. 

Wesleyan Methodist, 15. 
note, 18. 

Moravian, 6, 13,16, 22, 39, 81. 
auxiliary societies of, 41. 
among the Indians, 92. 
on the Mosquito Coast, 97. 




258 


INDEX 


Missionary Societies. 

Moravian, stations of, 97, 98, 239. 
in South Africa, 111. 
in the Himalayas, 166. 

London Medical, 73. 

Native of Madagascar, note, 14. 

Neederlandsch Gereformeerde Zen- 
dingsvereeniging (Amsterdam), 
note, 39. 

Neederlandsch Zendeling Genoot- 
schap (Rotterdam), 39. 

Neederlandsch Zendingsvereenig- 
ing (Rotterdam), 39. 

Norwegian, 6, 40. 
stations of, in Zululand, 113. 
in Madagascar, 116. 

Paris, missionary activity of, 39. 
in Senegambia, 103. 
among Basutos, 110. 

Ponape, 14. 

Presbyterian, in China, 192. 

Presbyterian (U. S., North), among 
the Indian, 92. 

Presbjderian (U. S., South), 92, 
198. 

Presbyterian Board (N. Y.), 58, 93, 
94, 103, 104, 137, 141-143, 189, 
212 . 

in Persia, 145, 146. 
in India, 153, 163, 164. 
in China, 195, 198-200, 245. 
in Japan, 210, 212. 

United Presbyterian (American), in 
Mount Lebanon, 141, 164. 

Presbyterian Church of South Aus¬ 
tralia, 81, 87. 

English Presbyterian, 34. 
in Melanesia, 86. 
in India, 153. 
in China, 191, 195-197. 

English Presbyterian Female Mis¬ 
sionary Society for India and 
China, 77. 

Irish Presbyterian, in Mount Leba¬ 
non, 141, 201, 202. 

United Presbyterian (Scotch), 113, 
164. 

in West Indies, 99. 
in Old Calabar, 103. 
among the Copts, 138, 139. 
in India, 153. 
in China, 191, 201. 
in Japan, 212. 

New Zealand Presbyterian, 87. 

Propagation Society, 13, 109, 117, 
189, 221. 
progress of, 17. 
converts of, 20. 
contributions of, 33, 42. 
work among the colonists, 82. 
in Borneo, 84. 
in Hudson’s Bay, 89. 


Missionary Societies. 

Propagation Society, among the 
Indians on Essequibo, &c., 97. 
in West Indies, 99. 
denominational interests of, 116. 
in India, 1.53-157,162,163,165,244. 
Ceylon, 160. 

Burmah, 161. 

China, 191. 

Japan, 213. * 

Quaker in Madagascar, 116, 242. 
Rhenish, 19, 39, 91. 
in Southern Borneo, 84. 
among the Battas, 84. 
in Hereroland, 107. 
in Cape Colony, 108. 

Rheinische HUlfsmiss. Gesellsch. 

(Amsterdam), 39. 

Russo-Greek, 216. 

Scandinavian, 8. 

Scotch, 8, 9. 
medical, 74. 
in Japan, 210. 

Scotch Free, 87, 112, 113, 118. 
schools in Lebanon, 141. 
in India, 159, 163,165. 
schools of, in India, 177. 
in China, 191. 

Scotch State, missions in India, 159, 
163, 164, 244. 
in China, 191. 

Society of Brethren, in Schleswig. 
Holstein, 40, 140. 

Society for Promoting Female Edu* 
cation in the East, 76. 

South American (London), 9. 
gift of Darwin to, 76. 
on the Falkland Islands, 101. 
South African, 40. 

St. Chrishona Institute, 56. 

Swedish, 111. 

Swedish Fosterland, in Abyssinia, 

120 . 

Swedish Fosterland Institute, in 
India, 166. 

Swenska, 14. 

Synodale Zendingscommissie, in 
Zuid-Africa, 109. 

English University, for Central 
Africa, 117. 

University, 33. 

Utrechtsche Zendingsvereeniging, 
39. 

Wesleyan, 34, 61, 106, 153. 
great progress of, 17. 
mission schools of, 18. 

• income of, 42. 
among the Maoris, 82. 
in PoljTiesia, 85. 
on Island of Tonga, 85. 
in Melanesia, 86. 
in Fiji, 87. 





INDEX 


259 


Missionary Societies. 

Wesleyan, in the West Indies, 99. 
in Antigua and Jamaica, 99. 
in Gambia and on Pongas, 103. 
pressing on to Ashantee, 105. 
on the Gold Coast, 104, 105. 
in Great and Little Namaqualand, 
108. 

in Orange Free States, 111. 
number of members in the mis¬ 
sions, 111. 

in Southern India, 159. 
in Ceylon, 159. 
in China, 191, 195. 

Woman’s, for Evangelization of 
Women, in India and Turkey, 
20, 77, 239 

Zeister Hulfsgesellschaft fiir 
Herrnhut, 39. 

Zendingsvereeniging of the Men- 
• nonites (Amsterdam), 39. 

statistics of, 36. 

Missouri, 93. 

Mitchell, Dr. Murray, 173. 

Moffat Institute, 109. 

Mohammedans, 8, 24. 

Moluccas, 6. 

Mombas, 117. 

Mongolians, 200. 

Moravian stations, 81. 

Morocco, 148. 

Morrison, 203. 

Mosquito coast, 9, 97. 

Moulmein, 161. 

Mozambique, 107. 

Mpwapwa, 119. 

Mtesa, King, 119. 

Miniahassa, number of converts in, 83. 
Mullens, Dr., 30, 118. 

Muller, Max, 47, 188. 
in regard to a church without mis¬ 
sions, 78. 

Murdoch, Rev. Dr., 161. 

Murray, Rev. Mr., 130. 

Mysore district, 159. 
famine In, 155. 

Nablus, 144. 

Nagasaki, 213. 

N.agpore, 165. 

Namaqualand, Great, 108. 

Little, 108. 

N.anking, 190, 198. 

JNarsingpore, 166. 

Natal, 110. 

Nazareth, 144. • 

missionary physicians in, 73. 
Necker, Mr. Th., 209. 

Neurdcnburg, 83. 

New Guinea, 7, 82, 240. 

Papuans converted in, 23. 
missionarj'^ testimony, 122. 


New York. See Missionary Confiaf* 
ences. 

New Zealand, 25, 81, 228. 

Nez Perces Indians, 94. 

Nias, 84. 

Nicaragua, Jesuitical, 97. 

Niger, 106. 

Nihilism, 26. 

Nile, 9, 119, 148. 

Ningpo, 197. 

Nonconformists, 33. 

Norfolk Island, 88. 

Northbrook, Lord, 31. 

Northampton, Eng., Dr. Carey at, 11. 
Norway, 40, 45. 

Nubia, 138. 

Nyassa Lake, 118, 127. 

Oberlander, 84. 

Oldenburg, 44. 

Ooroomiah, 145. 

Orange Free States, 110, IM. 

Orissa, 166. 

Osaka, 212, 213. 

Osiat, 138. 

Osnabriick, 44. 

Ostertag, 27. 

Otgiherero language, 108. 

Otis, Asa, gift of, 37. 

Otshi language, 105. 

.Orahereros, stations among, 107. 
Ovampoland, 107. 

Oxford, 49, 169. 

Pacific Ocean, 9. 

island world of, shut against the 
gospel, 6. 

Paine, Rev. Mr., 180. 

Paine’s Age of Reason, 181. 

Palestine, 8, 143. 

Palamcotta, 11. 

Papuans, converts among, 23, 239. 

what the gospel can do for, 81. 
Paramaribo, Moravian mission in, 97. 
Parkhurst, Rev. Mr., 234. 

Patagonia, 9. 

stations in, 101. 

Patteson, Bishop, 88, 131. 

Pegu, 157. 

Peking, 7, 199, 203. 

Persia, 8,145, 151. 

Peshawur, 11, 164, 147. 

Pesherehs, converts among, 23,101. 
Plath, 162. 

Point Macleay, 81. 

Polynesia almost Christianized, 7, 85. 

number of converts in, 88. 
Polynesian students, 89. 

Ponape, 14. 

Pongas, 103. 

Popo district, 106. 

Portugal, 119, 215. 



260 


INDEX 


Portuguese, 21. 

Prevost, Admiral, 91. 

Prussia, 44. 

Punjaub, 7, 163. 

flourishing missions in the, 145. 
Puntis, 195. 

Pushtu, New Testament translated 
into, 147. 

Quakers, Missionary Society of the, 
116. 

Rajpootana, 164. 

Ramahyuk, Moravian stations, 81. 
Ramanath, 156. 

Ramoth-Grilead, 145. 

Rangoon, 161. 

Ravensburg, 44. 

Red River, 89. 

Reed, Bible-work, &c., 19. 

Reichstag, speech of Jewish member 
of, 45. 

Reichel, 17. 

Renan quoted in India, 26, 181. 
Reports, missionary, more perfect, 
demanded, 224. 

Rheinland, 44. 

money used at carnival, 51. 

Robert College, 74, 139. 

Robertson, Canon Scott, money statis¬ 
tics, 33. 

Rocky Mountains, 9. 

Rohden, Von, 27. 

Rome, jealousy of, toward Protestant 
missions, 9, 241, 243. 

Roman Catholics, 92. 
in Loyalty Group, 87. 
they seek to paralyze Protestant 
missionary eflbrts, 27. 
mission in China, 194, 202. 

United Missions of, 30. 

Pi’opaganda, income of, 18. 
method in missions, 31. 

Rubaga, 119, t;43. 

Rupertsland, 89. 

Russia, 91. 

Russo-Greek mission, 216. 

Sagar, 166. 

Sahara, 102. 

Sallskapet, 14. 

Salem, 158. 

Samoan Islands, 45, 85, 240. 
^Sandwich Islands, 85. 

Santa Cruz Island, 88. 

Santals, 157, 167. 

Hantalistan, 162. 

San Francisco, 91. 

Sararaacca, 97. 

Sargent, Bishop, 156, 177. 
Saskatchewan, 89. 

Saxony, 43, 44. 


Saxony, missionary meeting in, 48. 
Scandinavia, missionary societies in, 
6, 14. 

Schafi", Dr., 37. 

missions in America, 62. 
Schleswig-Holstein, 14,44. 

Schreiber, Dr., 84. 

Schools, British Syrian Protestant, 
in Lebanon, 8, 141. 

Schrenk, 182. 

Schwartz, Dr., 171. 

Schweinitz, Bishop, 23. 

Scotland proud of its missionaries, 12. 
Scotch General Assembly, 11. 
Secundra, 78. 

Seir, 145. 

Seminoles, 93. 

Senegal, 8. 

Senegambia, 103. 

Shanghai, 198. See also Missionary 
Conference. 

Shantung, 199. 

Sharps, Rev. M., 176. 

Sherring, Rev. Dr., 16. 

Shing-king, 201. 

Siam, partly open to the gospel, 7, 
189,245. 

Sidon,143. 

Siegen, 44. 

Sierra Leone, 103. 
independent missionary society in, 
14. 

self-support, 25. 

Sikhs, 164. 

Simakov, 150. 

Singahalese district, 160. 

Sindh, 163. 

Singapore, 189. 

Sinkel, 151. 

Sioux, missions among, 94. 
Skrefsrud, 162. 

Slave Coast, 104. 

Slowan, William, 210. 

Smith, Thornley, 113. 

Smith, G., 113. 

Society Islands, 85. 

Sofala, 107. 

Solomon Island, 88. 

South Sea Islands, 1,10. 
number of native preachers in, 15 
converts in, 16. 
rapid progress in, 20. 
cannibals converted in, 23. 
self-support in, 25. 
missions in, produce trade, 47. 
astonishing results of missions in, 
84. 

cause of immediate results in, 86. 
opposition of Catholics, 27. 
Spurgeon, Rev. Mr., 71. 

native preacher calied, 141. 

Stanley, 118. 



INDEX 


261 


Steere, Bishop, 119. 

Stephenson, James, 113. 

Stevenson, Rev. Fleming, on the mag¬ 
nitude of mission work, 235. 
the type of native Christians in 
China, 204. 

St. Croix, 98. 

St. Jan, 98. 

St. Thomas, 98. 

St. Vincent, 99. 

Stewart, Dr., 113. 

Strauss, quoted in India, 26,181. 
Suaheli, 119. 

Su-Chau, 198. 

Sumatra, 7, 84,151. 

Rhenish missionaries in, 19. 
Sunday-school teachers in heathen 
lands, 15. 

Surinam, 97. 

Wesleyan and Moravian mission¬ 
aries in, 6. 

Swatow, 195. 

Swaziland, 223. 

Sweden, two societies in, 40. 
Switzerland, 40, 44. 
amount of money contributed to 
missions in, 18. 

opposition to old methods from, 65. 
Sychar, 179. 

Tabriz, 146. 

Tahiti, 85. 

Tamil, 167. 

Tamul, 160. 

Tanganyika Lake, 118. 

Taylor, Rev. William, 64. 

Taylor, Rev. Hudson, 56, 190, 192, 
.195. 

Teheran, 146. 

Teintsin, 190, 199, 207. 

Telugu district, 154, 167. 

Temple, Sir Richard, 175. 
Tenasserim, 189. 

Testament, New, translations of, 19. 
Texas, 93. 

Thibet, gospel knocking on door of, 
7, 166. 

Thomson, Rev. Dr., 50. 

Thompson, Rev. Dr. A. C., 133. 
Tierra del Fuego, 9,23. 

stations in, 101. 

Tigris, 139. 

Timor, waiting for missionary, 84. 
Tinnevelly, 156. 

flourishing missions in, 157. 
Tokelan, 85. 

Tokio, 212, 213, 215. 

Tonga Island, flourishing missions on, 
85. 

Tonquin, 161. 

! Tracy, Mr., 12. 

1 Transvaal, 110. 


Tranquebar, 171. 

Travancore, 156. 

Tripoli, 8,143. 

Tunis, 148. 

Tung-chau, 199. 

Turkey, 10. 
progress, 20. 

mission dispensaries and hospitals 
in, 74. 

Christian high schools in, 74. 
converted Mohammedans in, 138. 
Turko-Russian war, 149. 

Turner, Rev. F. T., 70, 205.* 

Uganda, 119, 243. 

Ujiji, 118. 

Umritsur, 183. 

Underhill, 99, 100. 

Universities, German, historical lec¬ 
tures on missions in, 13. 
candidates for missions rare In, 48. 
Unitarians in New England, 36. 
Unitarian missionary in India, 68. 
United States, freedmen gathered into 
churches in,9. 

subject of missions understood in 
churches of, 52. 
training of negroes in, 96. 

Upsala, Archbishop of, 114. 

Vaal, 111. 

Van, 141. 

Vaud, Canton de, 14, 

Victoria Nyanza, Lake, 119. 

Vienna Exposition, 81. 

Wahabis in Arabia, 151. 

Waitz, 84, 92. 

Walfish Bay, 8. 

Wallace, Dr., 11. 

Wangemann, Dr., 61,110. 

Wanika, mission in, revived, 118. 
War, Crimean, 137. 

Warneck, Dr,, 12, 15, 28. 

Watson, Dr., 138. 

Weigle, 76. 

Weitbrecht, Mrs., 75, 170, 174. 
Westminster Abbey, 78. 

Westminster Confession, 141. 
Westphalia, 44. 

Wetter, 84. 

Whaits, Dr., 101. 

Whalley, Mr., 138. 

White, Dr., 96. 

Whitmer, Rev. Mr., 47, 89. 

Williams, Prof. Monier, 61, 167, 187. 
praises schools in Southern India, 
177. 

Wimmera district, 81. 

Workers, need of, 62. 

Wurin, Dr., 67. 

Wiirtemburg, 44,228. 




262 


INDEX 


Yakamar, 94. 

Yedo, 212. 
Yokohama, 211, 212, 
Yorubalands, 106. 

Zahleh, 143. 


213. 


Zambesi, 120. 

Zanzibar, 8,117,119. 

Zenanas, work among the, 62. 
Zululand, 8, 110. 

Zulus, 111. 



IITEBATUEE REFEREED TO. 


Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, 45. 

Allgemeine Conservative Monats- 
schrift, 15. 

Allgemeine Ev. Luther. Kirchen- 
zeitung, 44. 

American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, History of, 
12; Memorial Volume of First Fifty 
Years, 180. 

American Board, Report of, 94. 

Annual Report of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Missionary Society, 15. 

Annual Report of the Missionary 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, 37. 

Appia’s Report at Mildmay Confer¬ 
ence, 110. 


Der Missionsheruf des evangelischen 
Deutschlands, 11. 

Der christliche Apologete, 58. 

Die Belebung des Missionssinnes in 
der Heimath, 28. 

Die christliche Mission, 12. 

Die rheinische Mission im Sommer, 
44. 

Die gegenseitigen Beziehungen, zwi- 
schen der modernen Mission und 
Cultur, 22. 

Dr. Stewart’s Address at Mildmay 
Conference, 113. 

Evangelical Christendom, 31. 

Evangel. Missions-Magazin, 68. 

Evangelischer Heidenbote, 105. 


' Easier Missions-Magazin, 14. 

Belebung des Missionssinnes, 33. 

Bible Society, British and Foreign, 
' Berlin Branch Report, 19. 

Bulletin des Missions Catholiques, 
194. 

Buxton’s Slavery and Freedom in the 
British West Indies, 99. 

■ Calwer Missionsblatt, 68. 

[«. Catholic Presbyterian, 32. 

China’s Millions, 56. 

Christianity in the United States, 37. 

Christliche Mission, ihre prinzipielle 
' • Berichtigung und praktische Durch- 
., fiihrung, 13. 

I Chrisllicher Botschafter, 227. 

^ Chronicles of the London Missionary 
Society, 11. 

5 Church Missionary Gleaner, 177. 

* Church Missionary Society’s Reijort, 
Abstract of, 17. 

t Church Missionary Society, A Brief 
View of the Principles and Pro- 
ceedings of the, 63. 

Church Missionary Intelligencer, 10. 

i Daily Review, 235. 


Female Missions in India and the 
Women of India, 75. 

Foreign Missions, their Relations and 
Claims, 36. 

Foreign Missionary, 189. 

Friend of India, 175. 

Gedenkenbuchder rheinischen Miss.- 
Gesellschaft, 108. 

Geschichte der rheinischen Miss.- 
Gesellschaft, 27. 

Geschichte der christlichen Mission 
unter den Heiden, 226. 

Gossner Mission among the Hindoos 
and Kohls, 162. 

Indian Female Evangelist, 177. 

Indian Christian Herald, 186. 

Jahrbiicher zur Verbreitung des 
Glaubens, 18. 

Lectures to my Students, Spurgeon, 
71. 

Life and Work, 33. 

London Times, 155. 

London Missionary Society’s Report, 
14, 187. 


263 







264 


LITERATURE REFERRED TO 


Map of Hindooism, 167. 

Medical Missions at Home and 
Abroad, 73. 

Medical Missionary Association, 73. 

Missions-Tidning, 120. 

Missionary Herald, 29. 

Missionary News, Illustrated, 124. 

Missionary Record of the United 
Presbyterian Church, 33. 

Missionsblatt des Frauen-Vereins fiir 
christliche Bildung des weiblichen 
Geschlechts in Morgenlande, 77. 

Missionsblatt der Briidergemeinde, 
17. 

Mission und Cultur, 18. 

Missionary Sacrifices, 12. 

Modern India and the Indians, 61. 

Nachrichten der ostind. Missions- 
Anstalt zu Halle, 60. 

Opium Trade, Indo-British, 191. 

Ottoman Empire, Gospel in, 137. 

Our Missions in the East, 205. 

Presbyterian Church, History of the 
Foreign Missions of the Secession 
and United, 55. 

Presbyterian Church, Report of 
Board of Foreign Missions of the, 
94. 

Presbyterian Church, North, Report, 
37. 

Pauline Methods of Missionary Work, 
64. 

Proceedings of the General Confer¬ 
ence on Foreign Missions, 16. 

Propagation Society, Report of, 112. 

Records of the General Missionary 
Conference at Shanghai, 191. 

Report of Mrs. Thompson’s sister, 
142. 


g D-i6 6 


Report of the Berlin Ladies’ Associa. 
tion for China, 195. 

Reports of a special committee of the 
Executive Committee of the Mis¬ 
sionary Union, 221. 

Sargent’s Life of Henry Martyn, 71. 

Shall we have a Missionary Revival? 

28. 

Shanghai Courier, 206. 

Smith’s Fifty Years of Foreign Mis¬ 
sions, 113. 

South Africa and its Mission-Fields, 
113. 

Spirit of Missions, 207. 

Statistics of the General Missionary 
Conference in Tokio, 215. 

Systems of Education in India, 173. 

Ten Years in Japan, 217. 

The Christian, 186. 

The Theory of Missions to the Hea¬ 
then, 179. 

The Wide Work and Great Claims 
of Modem Protestant Missions, 
234. 

The Work of the English Press in 
Beimt, 143. 

Thompson, Rev. Dr. A. C., private 
letter, 133. 

Transactions of the Allahabad Con¬ 
ference, 184. 

Transactions of the United Presby¬ 
terian Synod, 235. 

tiberblick fiber des Missionswerk der 
Briidergemeinde, 22. 

ijbersichtliche Geschichte der pro¬ 
test. Missionen, 27. 

Wesleyan Missionary Notices, 87. 

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary So¬ 
ciety, Report of, 15. ] 






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